THE 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE 



OF THE STATE OF 



ILLINOIS 



BY 



HARVEY W. MILLIGAN, A. M. 

Professor of History in Illinois College 




f/ttW-G-O, 



PHILADELPHIA 

Eldredge & Brother 

No. 17 North Seventh Street 
1895 






t s m 



6 

lA 1 



••o$o»« 

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by 

ELDREDGE & BROTHER, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



-*n 



WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 
ELECTROTYPERS, PHILADA. 



It has seemed to the author that the wisdom of the 
fathers, in separating the functions of government into 
three departments, and entrusting them to different 
groups of persons, was not sufficiently appreciated. The 
changes which are suggested by the discontented of to-day 
would practically destroy this safeguard of our liberties. 

If this little volume shall assist in impressing upon 
the youth of our State, not only the excellence of the dis- 
tinction between the Legislative, Executive and Judicial 
powers, but also the fact that safety lies in keeping them 
distinct, the object of the writer will be attained. 

Frequent references by the pupil to the text of the con- 
stitution will help to secure this end, but the intelligent, 
enthusiastic co-operation of the teacher is essential to the 
greatest success. 

The author desires to express his obligations to Hon. 
William H. Hinrichsen, Secretary of State ; Hon. Cyrus 
Epler, Judge on the Seventh Circuit of Illinois; Hon. 
Thomas Worthington, Hon. Isaac L. Morrison, George A. 
Merrill, Esq., and others, who have kindly aided him with 
valuable information and advice in the preparation of 
this work. 

H. W. MlLLIGAN. 

Illinois College. 




CHAPTER. PAGE 

I. Historical Sketch of Illinois 5 

II. The Civil Government of Illinois 28 

III. Nominations and Elections 70 

IV. The Constitution of the State of Illinois 75 

V. Index to the Constitution 127 

VI. Appendix 130 

VII. General Index 135 



ILLUSTEATIONS. 

Eobert Cavelier De La Salle = 5 

Map Showing the Territory Claimed by France and Spain 8 

Col. George Eogers Clark 12 

Illinois Building, World's Columbian Exposition .... 22 

Ulysses S. Grant 23 

Stephen A. Douglas 24 

John A. Logan 24 

Abraham Lincoln 25 

The Great Seal of the State of Illinois 28 

The Capitol Building at Springfield 30 





Robert Cavelier de La Salle. 



ILLINOIS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ILLINOIS. 

I. The French Period. 
1. Near the close of the seventeenth century a few bold 
cavaliers zealous for the glory of France, and a few devout 
priests zealous for the conversion of souls, began the ex- 
ploration of that vast region, intersected by innumerable 



6 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

water-ways, which is now called the Mississippi Valley. 
Of that occupation, illustrated again and again by deeds 
of heroism and piety perhaps unparalleled in American 
history, Francis Parkman has told the story. 1 A part of 
that story is the story of the people of the State of Illinois. 
It is a story of the days from La Salle to Lincoln, from 
the days of despotism to those of freedom. In the long 
struggle for the rights of man, Illinois and her people, in 
the providence of God, have borne no inconspicuous part. 
Her citizens, her soldiers, and her statesmen rank with the 
citizens, the soldiers, and the statesmen of her sister States 
with whom she has co-operated in the cause of humanity 
and human rights. 

2. The first settlement of white people within the limits 
of the present State of Illinois was made by French colonists 
from Canada in 1679, under the direction of the Sieur 
De La Salle, a friend of Frontenac, the French governor of 
Canada. La Salle discovered and named the Illinois River 
from an Indian tribe called Illini who lived on its banks. 
In 1682 he again visited Illinois with another colony of Cana- 
dians, made settlements at Kaskaskia, Fort Chartres, and 
elsewhere, and made a voyage down the Mississippi River 
to its mouth ; in the same year he established a depot for the 
purchase of furs from the Indians at St. Louis of the Rock 
about eight miles from the present city of Ottawa. This 
place is a natural fortress, being elevated one hundred and 
thirty-five feet above the river. Its northern side is on the 
Illinois River; it has a level top including three-fourths 
of an acre, and the only available approach is by a steep 
path on its eastern slope, which is easily fortified. 

3. At this place, which was afterward known as Starved 
Rock, and in its vicinity, not less than twenty thousand 
Indians belonging to different tribes were gathered, the 

1 Parkman's " Discovery of the Great West," " Pontiac and the Indian 
Wars," etc. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 7 

women employed in raising corn and vegetables for suste- 
nance, the men mainly engaged in the collection of furs 
which they bartered with the French for commodities. 
It is no wonder that the French became wealthy by 
exchanging knives, scissors, pocket looking-glasses, and 
other inexpensive trinkets for furs which were worth in 
Paris a thousandfold more. 

4. Meanwhile a new French governor, envying the 
profits that La Salle was enjoying from the fur-trade, 
took the place of Frontenac at Quebec. He issued orders 
unfriendly to the business, and in 1702 he discontinued 
the fort at Starved Rock. 

5. The first permanent settlement of Europeans in Illi- 
nois was made at Tamaroa, now called Cahokia, in St. Clair 
county, near the Mississippi River, a few miles below 
St. Louis. The precise time of its settlement is uncer- 
tain, but an Indian village and Catholic missionaries were 
there in the year 1700. Some of these missionaries were 
secular priests, a larger number belonged to the Recollet 
order, and at a later period a still greater number came 
who were Jesuits. The benevolence which these priests 
practised toward their fellow-men, and their fervent piety, 
gave them a deserved influence over the Indians as well 
as over their own countrymen. Their teachings were the 
laws of the people, their decisions were as authoritative as 
the decisions of courts, and both justice and mercy reigned 
in harmony. It was a golden age for the colonists. 

The discoveries and settlements of the French colonists 
and of the French Jesuit missionaries gave to France the 
ownership of the great Mississippi Valley by right of dis- 
covery and first occupation. 

6. In 1712, Crozat, a French merchant, received a grant 
from the king of France, authorizing him to search for 
wealth in the king's dominions from the Wabash River to 
the Mexican Gulf, on condition that one-fifth of the revenues 
that he received should be paid to the French king. 



8 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

7. In pursuing his schemes Crozat endeavored to open 
commerce with the Spaniards on the Gulf of Mexico, but 
they insisted that they were the owners of the Mississippi 
Valley, and that he was a trespasser on their territory. 
He then proposed to exchange the products of Illinois with 
the Spaniards of Santa Fe for their gold and silver, but his 
offers were rejected. 




Map showing the Territory claimed by France and by Spain. 
(About 1750 a. d.) 

8. Crozat then attempted to enrich himself by trading 
for furs with Indians to the east and south-east, but the 
superior energy and enterprise of the English settlers of 
Virginia and the Carolinas, who had penetrated the for- 
ests of Kentucky and Tennessee, secured the trade of the 
Indian tribes east of the Mississippi. Crozat failed, as so 
many others have failed, to perceive that the wealth of 
Illinois and of the Mississippi Valley lies in the inexhaust- 
ible fertility of its soil. After five years of labors and 
failures, in which he exhausted all his capital, he received 
permission from the king to give up his charter. The 
control of the commerce of the valley passed again into 
the hands of the king of France. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 9 

9. In 1717, John Law brought forward his famous 
" Mississippi scheme." This financial illusion is one 
of the most remarkable episodes in history. Many 
millions of dollars were lost, and thousands of persons 
were made paupers, by purchasing stock in a speculative 
company that possessed no wealth nor a prospect of any. 
It was a delusive scheme which proposed to pledge all 
the land of North America east of the Mississippi River 
as security for the shares of its stock. A company called 
the " Western Company " was formed in France to mine 
for silver and gold in the Mississippi Valley. To this 
company the king gave the control and government of 
the French territory in the Mississippi Valley. The pres- 
ent counties of Jackson, Monroe, Randolph, and St. Clair, 
and other parts of Illinois, were searched for silver, and a 
Frenchman named Renault brought from France two 
hundred laborers, and from St. Domingo five hundred 
negro slaves, to work in the mines. The enterprise was 
as fruitless as the search for gold at Jamestown in 1607. 
The financial collapse of the Western Company was 
delayed, but not avoided, by the change of its name to 
"The Company of the Indies." In 1732 the company 
gave up its charter, and the territory was again ceded to 
the king of France. For the next thirty years the govern- 
ment of the French dominions in the Mississippi Valley 
was vested in governors appointed by the king. Under 
the royal governors Bienville, De Vaudreuil, La Buissonier, 
and Macarty, the people were contented and happy. " The 
governor, aided by the friendly advice of the commandant 
and priests, either prevented the existence of controversies, 
or settled them, when they arose, without litigation." 
Lawsuits and courts were unknown. This period has 
been called by historians "the halcyon days of Illinois." 

10. For reasons which are now clearly understood, the 
settlement of Illinois and the Mississippi Valley had been 
a failure. The French, up to the time of the surrender of 



10 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

Quebec to the English in 1759, had been in undisturbed 
possession of the country for eighty years, yet from Lake 
Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico there were only four 
thousand white inhabitants. The reasons for this failure 
are stated by Judge Moses in his work on Illinois : 1. The 
French offered no inducements to settlers to become owners 
of the soil. 2. Transfers and sales of land were burdened 
with restrictions and heavy fines. 3. Energy was para- 
lyzed by the grasp of commercial monopolies, thus stamp- 
ing out all competition. 4. The French preferred ignorance 
to knowledge. During their domination in Canada there 
was not a printing-press in the province. 

11. The defeat of the French at Quebec in September, 
1759, and the surrender of Mackinaw, Detroit, and other 
posts to the English in the following year, ended French 
supremacy in the Mississippi Valley. In 1763, by the 
treaty of Paris, France relinquished all claim to territory 
in North America, but it was not until the 10th of 
October, 1765, that the lilies of France gave place to the 
cross of St. George over Fort Chartres, the last stronghold 
of the French in Illinois. 

II. The English Period. 

12. The most dramatic event of this period — extending 
from 1765 to 1778 — is the conspiracy of Pontiac, a con- 
spiracy whose dark deeds are told by one of our most illus- 
trious historians. 1 In the story of the American Indians, 
Pontiac is no less famed than Philip or Tecumseh. 

13. It had always been the policy of the French to 
ingratiate themselves with the natives. In this they were 
remarkably successful. By providing the Indians with 
guns, ammunition, and clothing, by purchasing their furs 
and supplying them with spirits, and by free and equal 
social intercourse with them, the French not only made 

1 Francis Parkman. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 11 

themselves agreeable to the natives, but also essential to 
their welfare. 

14. The English, on the contrary, made little effort to 
acquire the good will of the natives, and had it not been 
for the prudent firmness of Major Rogers in his negotia- 
tions with Pontiac, a great part of the advantage arising 
from the surrender of Canada might have been lost. 
Pontiac aroused and combined all the tribes of the West 
against the English. From the Susquehanna to the 
Mississippi no white person was to be spared. Every 
stronghold west of Pittsburg, except Detroit, fell into the 
hands of the Indians. 

15. But with the defeat of the natives in Ohio, the relief 
of Detroit, the recapture of Mackinaw and other forts that 
had been seized by the Indians ; when the French com- 
mander at St. Louis assured the Indians that the French 
dominion in Canada had been ceded to England, and the 
trans-Mississippi territory to Spain; when Boquet had 
compelled a surrender of the whites who had been adopted 
into the families of their captors ; and, finally, when Cap- 
tain Stirling, at the head of the 42d Highlanders, raised 
the flag of England over Fort Chartres, — Pontiac realized 
that his power had departed, and he sullenly bowed to his 
fate. His inglorious assassination near St. Louis soon after- 
ward gave peace and encouragement to the English. From 
the older settlements in the East and the South-east, stim- 
ulated by the hope of a gainful traffic with the natives or 
the prospect of abundant returns from the soil, immigrants 
began settlements in the river-bottoms of Illinois. 

16. On the 10th of October, 1765, Fort Chartres was 
surrendered by the French to the English. The first 
official act of the English officer in charge was to publish 
a proclamation issued by General Gage, commander-in- 
chief of the British forces in North America, offering to the 
French inhabitants religious freedom, with the rights and 
privileges of British subjects, if they would take the oath 



12 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



of allegiance to England. If they chose France to Eng- 
land, they were offered a safe removal, with all their goods. 
About one-third of the French settlers sold their lands to 
British subjects, preferring to leave the country. 

17. On June 2, 1774, the English Parliament passed an 
act by which the North- West Territory, 1 of which Illinois 
was a part, was included in the Province of Canada. This 
act was denounced by the settlers, most of whom, having 
come from the eastern colonies, retained sentiments of 
friendship for their old homes. In the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence this act is cited as one of the illegal acts of the 
English Government. 

III. The Territorial Period. 

18. In 1777, the year following the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, Colonel George Rogers Clark, recognizing the 
wisdom of including the North- West Territory within the 

limits of the United States, 
proposed to Patrick Henry, 
then governor of Virginia, a 
plan for capturing the Eng- 
lish posts in Illinois and In- 
diana, which was approved. 
Clark was furnished with 
$6000 by Virginia, and was 
authorized to raise a body 
of troops. Arriving at Kas- 
kaskia July 5, 1778, he cap- 
tured the garrison and the 
English governor without 
firing a gun. He soon after- 
ward captured Fort Vincennes, and took possession of Ca- 

1 The North- West Territory comprised all the land westward from 
Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Mississippi Kiver, and from the Ohio 
Eiver to the Canadian line. It embraced all the land now occupied by 
the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 




Colonel George Rogers Clark. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 13 

hokia and the other settlements in Illinois. The account 
of Clark's campaign reads like a tale from Froissart. Fort 
Vincennes was afterward retaken by the British, and 
again recaptured by Clark. From this time it was held 
by the Americans. The United States, mainly through 
the foresight and energy of Clark, " the Hannibal of the 
West," was able, in the treaty between the United States 
and England in 1783, to secure the Great Lakes, and not 
the Ohio River, as the northern boundary of our conti- 
nent. 

19. It was partly on account of Clark's conquests, and 
partly because of the charter of 1606 to the old London 
Company which conveyed "the land from sea to sea," 
that the State of Virginia laid claim to the territory north- 
west of the Ohio River. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
New York also claimed portions of the territory under 
the terms of their charters. These claims infringed upon 
that of Virginia, but all these claims, as well as similar 
claims made by North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia, were voluntarily relinquished in cessions made by 
the legislatures of those States to the General Govern- 
ment. The only condition insisted on was one by Vir- 
ginia, which declared that the expenses incurred by the 
State of Virginia in maintaining forts and garrisons and in 
subduing British posts should be repaid this State by the 
United States ; that the French settlers who had become 
citizens of Virginia should be protected in their rights 
and possessions ; and that one hundred and fifty thousand 
acres of land which had been promised to George Rogers 
Clark and his men should be laid off in one tract and 
divided among them. This condition was agreed to by 
Congress, and on March 1, 1784, the deed of cession was 
given by Virginia to the United States. 

20. The ordinance of 1787, which was passed by the 
Congress of the Confederation before the Constitution of 
the United States was adopted, fixed the basis of future 



14 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

government in six unalterable articles in the form of an 
agreement between the people of the original States and 
the people of the North-West Territory. Of this ordinance 
Chief- Justice Chase has said : " Never, probably, in the his- 
tory of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately 
fulfil and yet so mightily exceed the anticipations of the 
legislators. The ordinance has been well described as a 
pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in the settle- 
ment of the North-western States. When the settlers went 
into the wilderness they found the law already there." 

21. In 1789, President Washington appointed General 
Arthur St. Clair as the first governor of the North-West 
Territory. In 1791, General St. Clair was defeated in a 
battle with the Indians. General Anthony Wayne then 
took command of the troops, and, having defeated the 
Indians, made a treaty with them in 1794, and made per- 
manent the safety of the settlers who from that time freely 
emigrated into the territory. 

22. In 1800, Congress created Indiana Territory out of 
the North-West Territory, including in it most of the terri- 
tory now occupied by the States of Indiana, Illinois, Mich- 
igan, and Wisconsin. General William H. Harrison was 
appointed governor of the territory, with the seat of gov- 
ernment at Vincennes. During his term of office he made 
so many treaties with different Indian tribes that he was 
known as " the great treaty-maker." Not less than thirteen 
treaties with the Indians are signed with his name. 

23. After the purchase of Louisiana from the French, 
that country was annexed to Indiana Territory. The 
connection continued, however, but one year, ending in 
March, 1805. 

24. In 1809, Illinois Territory was created by Congress 
out of that part of Indiana Territory lying west of the 
Wabash River. Its capital was located at Kaskaskia. 
Ninian Edwards was appointed governor by President 
Madison. At this time the white population of Illinois 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 15 

Territory was about nine thousand, and the Indian popu- 
lation about eighteen thousand. 

25. During the war of 1812-15 with England, the prin- 
cipal engagement in the Territory of Illinois was what is 
known as the " Massacre at Fort Dearborn," which stood 
upon ground now occupied by part of the city of Chicago. 

IV. Illinois as a State. 

26. In January, 1818, the legislature of the Territory 
of Illinois petitioned the National Congress for admission 
into the Union as a State. On April 18, 1818, Congress 
passed an enabling act beginning as follows : " Be it 
enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America, in Congress assembled: 
That the inhabitants of the Territory of Illinois be and 
they are hereby authorized to form for themselves a con- 
stitution and state government, and to assume such name 
as they deem proper, and the said State when formed 
shall be admitted to the Union upon the same footing as 
the original States in all respects whatever." 

27. In May, 1818, a convention was held, composed of 
thirty -three delegates from the fifteen counties which com- 
posed the Territory, 1 and formed the first constitution of 
the State. In accordance with the provisions of the consti- 
tution, an election for state officers and members of the 
state legislature was held in September. In October the 
Legislature met at Kaskaskia and organized the state gov- 
ernment. 2 The provisions of the enabling act having been 

1 These fifteen counties were : Bond, Crawford, Edwards, Franklin, 
Gallatin, Jackson, Johnson, Madison, Monroe, Pope, Randolph, St. 
Clair, Union, Washington, and White. 

2 The first state officers were : Governor, Shadrach Bond ; lieutenant- 
governor, Pierre Menard ; secretary of state, Elias Kent Kane ; state 
auditor, Elijah C. Berry ; state treasurer, John Thomas ; attorney-gen- 
eral, Daniel P.Cook; adjutant-general, William M. Alexander. The 
legislature elected Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas United States 
senators. 



16 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

complied with, Illinois, the twenty-first State, was admit- 
ted into the Union by Congress, December 3, 1818. 1 

28. The act providing for the admission of the State 
made the line of 41° 39' north latitude the northern 
boundary. Judge Pope, the delegate in Congress from 
the Territory of Illinois, declared that the territorial 
boundary of 41° 39' would give the State no interest in 
Lake Michigan, while the line of 42° 30' would give her a 
lake port and would bind her in business relations to the 
Northern as well as to the Southern States. With pro- 
phetic foresight he said : " If her commerce is to be con- 
fined to that great artery of communication, the Missis- 
sippi, which washes her entire western border, and to its 
chief tributary on the south, the Ohio, there is a possibil- 
ity that her commercial relations with the South may 
become so closely connected that in the event of an at- 
tempted dismemberment of the Union, Illinois will cast 
her lot with the Southern States. On the other hand, to 
fix the northern boundary of Illinois upon such a parallel 
of latitude as would give to the State territorial jurisdic- 
tion over the south-western shores of Lake Michigan 

1 At the present time the enabling act usually defines the territory 
to be admitted by fixing its boundaries; provides for calling a conven- 
tion of the electors of the Territory to form a constitution, and for 
submitting the constitution so formed to popular vote; it stipulates 
that a republican form of government shall be established, and that 
the constitution adopted shall not in any manner conflict with the 
Constitution of the United States nor with the principles of the Dec- 
laration of Independence ; that ordinances shall be enacted providing 
for the perfect toleration of religious sentiment and freedom of wor- 
ship ; that provision shall be made for establishing and maintaining a 
system of public schools, and for the payment of the territorial debts ; 
it determines the number of representatives to Congress to which the 
State is entitled at the time of admission ; it appropriates certain lands 
belonging to the United States, situated within the Territory, for the 
benefit of state and educational institutions ; and it contains such other 
provisions as Congress may deem necessary. 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 17 

would be to unite the incipient commonwealth to the 
States of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York in 
a bond of common interest wellnigh indissoluble. By 
the adoption of such a line Illinois may become at some 
future time the keystone to the perpetuity of the Union. 
A water-way connecting the Lake with the Mississippi 
would bind together the East and the West by a com- 
munity of interest." The result of Judge Pope's argu- 
ment was to change the northern boundary of the State 
from 41° 39' to 42° 30' north latitude, and thus to include 
Illinois, ever after, among the Northern rather than the 
Southern States. This change in boundaries gave Illinois 
lake-ports and lead-mines. 

29. Shadrach Bond was the first governor of the State of 
Illinois. During his administration a state bank with 
three branch banks, chartered by the legislature, furnished 
$300,000 in currency, which was made receivable for state 
and county taxes and for salaries. This paper money 
gradually fell in value until the notes were worth but 
thirty per cent, of their face. A law delaying the collec- 
tion of debts was also unfortunately enacted by this legis- 
lature. The firmness of Governor Bond in executing a 
duellist who had shot his opponent put an end to duelling 
in Illinois. 

30. In 1822, Edward Coles was elected governor as 
successor to Governor Bond. The limitation of slavery 
in Illinois was the most important question that arose 
during his term. Slavery was growing in the State, the 
number of slaves having increased from 168 in 1810 to 917 
in 1820. One of the United States Senators, the lieutenant- 
governor, and both houses of the legislature were in favor 
of slavery. Governor Coles was opposed to it. A special 
committee of the legislature to which had been referred the 
question of slavery recommended that at the next election 
the electors should vote for or against a convention to 
amend the constitution so as to legalize slavery. After a 

2 



18 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

long and severe contest for a year and a half the proposi- 
tion was defeated by the people. The vote stood : " for," 
4972; "against," 6640 — a majority of 1678 against legal- 
izing slavery in the State. 

31. In 1825, during the administration of Governor 
Coles, General La Fayette visited the State. Governor Coles 
was quite unpopular during his lifetime, but to him, says 
Judge Moses, "the people of Illinois are more indebted 
than to any other person for saving the State, then and for 
ever, from the black curse of African slavery." 

32. Ninian Edwards was governor of Illinois from 1826 
to 1830. He was more popular with the people than 
either of his predecessors had been. 

33. The event which was of most interest during the 
administration of Governor John Reynolds, who suc- 
ceeded Governor Edwards, was the so-called Black Hawk 
war. " This," says Judge Moses, " has been most unduly 
magnified. It is the story of calling out eight thousand 
volunteers to co-operate with fifteen hundred troops of 
the regular army in expelling from the State a band of 
about four hundred Indian warriors, with their one thou- 
sand women and children, at an expenditure of millions 
of money and three years of time, besides the loss of over 
a thousand lives. It was brought on by the interference 
of the state authorities, together with those of the United 
States, upon the false pretences and clamorous demands 
of a few interloping squatters who were themselves in the 
wrong." Governor Reynolds himself gives an account 
very different from the above. 

34. The fifth governor of Illinois was Joseph Duncan, 
elected in 1834. He advocated a public-school system, 
the Illinois and Michigan canal, and a homestead exemp- 
tion bill. A bill authorizing the removal of the capital 
from Vandalia to Springfield was passed during his ad- 
ministration. The removal of deposits from the United 
States Bank by President Jackson and their deposit in 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 19 

state banks was followed by a period of wild speculation, 
resulting in financial stringency and many business fail- 
ures. As a measure of relief, the governor called the legis- 
lature together in extra session and recommended the 
repeal of the internal improvement system. This the 
legislature refused to do, with the result, deprecated by 
Governor Duncan, of raising the state debt from $217,276 
to $6,668,784. The Alton riots and the death of E. P. 
Lovejoy, which has been called the beginning of the end 
of slavery in the United States, were important incidents 
of Governor Duncan's administration. 

35. Thomas Carlin was governor of Illinois from 1838 
to 1842. On July 4, 1839, the capital was removed to 
Springfield. Further internal improvements were author- 
ized by the Legislature, and in 1839 the indebtedness of 
the State amounted to $13,230,550. This alarmed the 
legislature. It completed the railway from Springfield to 
the Illinois River at a cost of nearly one million dollars, 
leased it at a loss for a few years, and it was finally sold at 
auction for $21,100. 

36. The administration of Thomas Ford was noted for 
the outbreak of the citizens of Illinois sometimes called 
the Mormon War. This war was not one of which the 
State can be proud ; its causes and results must be studied 
elsewhere. It was an illustration of the efficacy of perse- 
cution in building up an utterly absurd religious com- 
munity. There was a marked improvement in the public 
credit of the State during Governor Ford's administration. 

37. Augustus C. French was the last governor of Illi- 
nois under the constitution of 1818. A convention for 
revising the constitution of the State met at Springfield 
in June, 1847. The revised constitution was adopted by 
the people by a vote of 60,000 against 15,000. Governor 
French was re-elected in 1848, and served till 1852. It was 
during his administration that the law was enacted, which 
has since proved so popular, authorizing township organ- 



20 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

ization of counties. A homestead exemption law, a pro- 
hibitory liquor law, and a free banking law were also passed. 
Each of these laws has been instrumental in developing 
industry, morality, and wealth in Illinois. During his 
second term the Illinois Central Railroad received its 
charter. 

38. In 1852, Joel Mattison was elected governor. The 
most noted law enacted during his term was one prohibit- 
ing the immigration of free negroes into Illinois. The 
state debt, which had increased to $16,000,000, was reduced 
to $12,000,000. 

39. The campaign of 1856 introduced into our politics 
the question of slavery extension. Senator Douglas and 
Abraham Lincoln were the exponents of these opposing 
policies. At the election William H. Bissel was chosen 
governor. During his administration the state debt was 
reduced to $9,000,000. The governor died during his 
official term, and Lieutenant-Governor Wood acted as 
governor. 

40. The election of Richard Yates as governor followed 
in 1860. By his energy and patriotism he earned the 
name of " the great war governor." His adjournment of 
the legislature in 1863, against its will, because he deemed 
its continuance a menace to the public welfare, was an 
illustration of his courage. In this act the people sus- 
tained him, and at the next election they sent to Spring- 
field a legislature favorable to the prosecution of the war. 

The removal of 30,000 muskets, with cannon, small 
arms, and ammunition, from the United States arsenal at 
St. Louis to Springfield, 111., under direction of Governor 
Yates, at the beginning of the Rebellion, admirably illus- 
trates the firmness of his purpose and the fertility of his 
resources. 

41. Richard Oglesby was the next governor. During 
his administration the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution was sent to the States by Congress, and Illi- 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 21 

nois was the first State to ratify it, thus having the signal 
honor of leading the line of American commonwealths in 
abolishing slavery. 

42. During the administration of Governor John M. 
Palmer, from 1869 to 1873, occurred the Chicago fire, which 
destroyed more wealth than any similar calamity in this 
country ; the third constitution of the State, that of 1870, 
was adopted; the Fifteenth Amendment to the national 
Constitution was adopted, and the state debt was dimin- 
ished about four million dollars. 

43. In 1872, Richard Oglesby and John L. Beveridge 
were elected governor and lieutenant-governor of Illinois. 
Governor Oglesby being elected almost immediately there- 
after to the United States Senate, Lieut.-Governor Bever- 
idge acted as governor during nearly the whole term. 

44. Shelby M. Cullom was chosen governor in the 
centennial year of the Republic, 1876, and was re-elected 
in 1880. About the middle of his second term he was 
elected to the United States Senate, and Lieut.-Governor 
Hamilton acted as governor for the remainder of the term. 

45. In 1884, General Oglesby became governor for the 
third time. He was succeeded in 1888 by Joseph W. 
Fifer, during whose administration the State debt was paid. 
In 1892, Fifer was succeeded by Governor John P. Altgeld. 
The prominent events of this administration were the great 
work, begun in 1892, of connecting by a navigable stream 
the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan, the organization 
and administration of the World's Columbian Exposition 
in 1893, and the great strikes of 1894. 

46. In the light of the present day we can see that much 
of the legislation of the past seventy-six years has been 
unwise ; yet, so great has been the industry and the energy 
of our people and the abundance of our natural resources 
that the mistakes of law-makers have but slightly retarded 
the prosperity of the people. 

In the development of this country the people of the 




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THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 23 

State of Illinois have borne no inconspicuous part. In 
1818, Illinois was a frontier State ; in less than seventy- 
years it became the fourth State of the Union in order 
of population. During the summer of 1830 the region 
about Chicago was surveyed, including the harbor and a 
portion of the future city. An engineer writing from 
Chicago on the 13th of October of that year says that the 
sale of city lots began on the 27th of September, before 
which time " there was not one freeholder within one hun- 
dred miles of this place." Within sixty years of the time 
of this first sale of lots, Chicago became the second city in 
the Union in population, and the business capital of the 
Mississippi Valley. Never before in the history of the 
world has a great city come into existence so quickly. In 
ancient times great cities were sometimes founded by great 
conquerors, as Alexander founded Alexandria, and Con- 
stantine founded Constantinople. It is the people who 
build up great cities in America. 




Ulysses S. Grant. 



In the struggle for the preservation of the Union, Illinois 
led the States of the Mississippi Valley. Not only did she 
send her sons in vast numbers to battle for freedom, but she 



24 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



gave to the Nation a great soldier, Grant, and a great com- 
mander and chief and president, Abraham Lincoln. These 
two Americans were as eminent in peace as in war. From 
Illinois have come two vice-presidents of the United States, 
one president, one secretary of state of the United States, 
two secretaries of w T ar, one secretary of the interior, and 
an eminent justice of the supreme court of the United 
States. Among her notable . United States senators are 
Douglas and Logan. 





Stephen A. Douglas. 



John A. Logan. 



But the man of Illinois whose life during its last ten 
years was the history of this nation is Abraham Lincoln, 
"the foremost American." His fame now reaches to the 
ends of the earth, because he w T as the friend of freedom 
and of humanity. Of his humble birth, of his struggles in 
early life, of his fidelity to the great principles of popular 
government, of his career as president of the United 
States, of the great state paper which he wrote giving free- 
dom to millions held in bondage, of his genial and kindly 
nature, of his wisdom and patience, of his untimely 
death, all the world knows. His life was " with malice 
toward none, with charity for all;" the government which 



THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 25 

he served and administered was the " government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people," and he gave 
his life that this government " shall not perish from the 
earth." 




Abraham Lincoln. 

What nobler service can we, of this State that gave 
Abraham Lincoln to the Nation, do than to dedicate our- 
selves to the cause to which he gave " the last full measure 
of devotion"? What loftier privilege than the privilege 
of the American citizen to participate in the civil affairs 
of our community, of our State, of our common country? 
The long line of patriots lead the way. Following such 
footsteps, we cannot wander from the true path of safety. 
Popular government is the hope of the world. Its fate is 
in our hands. From every patriot grave in Illinois, from 
every patriotic deed and word of her noble sons, let us 
give renewed devotion to the cause of pure, just, and 
responsible government, and in the performance of our 
duties may the blessing of God rest upon the people of 
the State of Illinois. 



PROMINENT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
STATE OF ILLINOIS. 

1679. First settlement of whites within the limits of the 

present State of Illinois. 
1682. Settlement at St. Louis-of-the-Rock. 
1700. The first permanent settlement of white people at 

Tamaroa. 
1702. Settlement at St. Louis-of-the-Rock abandoned. 
1712. Grant from King Louis to Crozat. 
1717. Crozat surrenders his charter to the king. 
1717. Law's Mississippi scheme organized. 
1717. The control of the Territory given by the king to 

the Western Company. 
1732. The Territory again ceded to the king of France. 
1732. Bienville and others royal governors till 1765. 
1759. Termination of French supremacy in the Mississippi 

Valley. 
1765. Fort Chartres surrenders to the English. 
1765. English period to 1778. 
1774. Illinois included in the Province of Canada. 
1777. George Rogers Clark conquers the Territory for the 

United States. 
1787. Ordinance for the government of the North-West 

Territory adopted by the Congress of the Con- 
federation. 
1789. Gen. Arthur St. Clair appointed first governor of 

North-West Territory. 
1800. Indiana Territory created by Congress, and Wm. 

Henry Harrison appointed governor. 

26 



PROMINENT EVENTS IN HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. 27 

1809. Illinois Territory created by Congress, and Ninian 

Edwards appointed governor. 
1812. Massacre at Fort Dearborn, Aug. 15. 
1818. The " Enabling Act " passed by Congress permitting 

Illinois Territory to become a State. 
1818. Convention to form Constitution and elect State 

officers, Sept. 17, 18, 19. 
1818. Organization of State Government, Oct. 5, at Kas- 

kaskia. 
1818. Illinois admitted into the Union by Congress, Dec. 3. 

1824. Proposition to amend the Constitution so as to 

legalize slavery in the State, defeated, Aug. 2. 

1825. Visit of Gen. La Fayette. 
1831. The Black-Hawk War. 
1837. The Alton riots. 

1839. State capital removed from Vandalia to Springfield. 

1844. The Mormon War. 

1848. Second Constitution of Illinois adopted. 

1870. Present Constitution of Illinois adopted. 

1871. Great fire in Chicago, Oct. 8 and 9. 

1893. World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. 




The Great Seal of the State of Illinois. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



The State. 
47. The Citizen. — The Constitution of the United States 
provides that " all persons born or naturalized in the United 
States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens 
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." 
Hence all men, women and children born or naturalized 
in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
residing in the State of Illinois, are citizens both of the 
United States and of the State of Illinois. But all citi- 
zens are not electors. An elector is a citizen who has the 
right to vote. The Constitution of the State prescribes 
the qualifications of an elector. 1 

1 See Art VII. Sect 1. Keference is made to the Constitution to 
familiarize the student with the Constitution itself and to lead him 
to seek for information at its source. 

28 



THE STATE. 29 

48. The State Government. — The government of the 
State of Illinois is vested in three departments, the legis- 
lative, the executive, and the judicial. 

The Legislative Department. 

49. The Legislative Power of the State is vested in a 
General Assembly, which consists of a Senate and a House 
of Representatives. 1 

50. The General Assembly or Legislature meets in 
the Capitol building at Springfield. 2 It makes all the 
laws of the State, but the laws that it makes must not 
conflict with the Federal Constitution nor with that of 
the State, or they may be declared unconstitutional by 
the courts, and therefore null and void. These laws pro- 
vide for the dealings of citizens with one another, such 
as making contracts, partnerships, buying or selling prop- 
erty of any kind, making mortgages, deeds, notes, checks, 
etc. ; for the organization and government of all corpora- 
tions; for the prevention and punishment of crime; for 
the establishment and support of charitable and educa- 
tional institutions ; for establishing and regulating courts ; 
for the government of counties, townships, cities, villages, 
and school districts; for the method of procedure in 
courts ; for the qualifications of electors ; and for all 
other matters in which the citizens of the State may 
have any interest. It is the duty of the legislature to 
make such laws as will promote the general welfare of 
the people of the State. All the laws of the State are 
enacted by the authority of " the people of the State of 
Illinois, represented in the General Assembly." 3 

The General Assembly divides the State into senatorial 

1 See Art, IV. Sect. 1. 

2 The sessions of the General Assembly begin at noon on the Wed- 
nesday after the first Monday in January of every second year (1895, 
'97, '99, etc.). 

3 See Art IV Sect. 11. 




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THE STATE. 31 

districts, judicial districts, and congressional districts ; it 
determines all matters connected with the taxation re- 
quired for carrying on the State government, and it elects 
two persons to represent the State in the United States 
Senate. Members of the legislature are paid five dollars 
per day and ten cents for every mile necessarily travelled 
in going to and returning from the capital. Fifty dollars 
per session is also paid to each member for postage, sta- 
tionery, newspapers, and other incidental expenses. 1 

51. The Senate consists of fifty-one members, one for 
each senatorial district into which the State is divided. 
The senator from each district is chosen by the electors 
thereof to serve for four years. The lieutenant-governor 
of the State is ex- officio president of the Senate, but he is 
not a member of that body, and has no vote except when 
the Senate is equally divided on a question. The Senate 
elects one of its own members president pro tempore, who 
acts as president when the lieutenant-governor is absent. 
The Senate has the sole power to try impeachments, and 
to confirm appointments made by the governor. 

52. The House of Representatives consists of one 
hundred and fifty-three members, three representatives 
being chosen by the electors in each senatorial district to 
serve for two years ; 2 it elects one of its own members as 
its speaker, who appoints all the committees unless the 
House orders otherwise. The House of Representatives 
has the sole power to institute impeachments. 3 

Minority Representation 4 is made possible by permit- 
ting each elector to cast as many votes as there are repre- 
sentatives to be elected, and to distribute these votes as he 
may see fit ; he may cast three votes for one candidate ; or 
two votes for one candidate and one for another ; or one 

1 See Art IV Sect 21. 3 See Art. IV Sect 24. 

2 See Art IV. Sect 7. 4 See Art IV. Sect 8. 



32 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

and a half votes for each of two candidates ; or one vote 
for each of three candidates. 1 

53. How the Laws are Made. — The manner of making 
laws by the legislature is similar to the method of making 
laws by the Congress of the United States. 

A law may originate in the form of a bill in either 
house. This bill must be referred to a committee, re- 
turned therefrom, and be printed for the use of members. 
It must be read in full in each house on three different 
days. No bill may embrace more than one subject, and 
that subject must be expressed in its title. A bill which 
has passed one house may be amended or changed in 
the other, but it must then be returned to the house in 
which it originated for its concurrence. On its final 
passage the bill must, in each house, receive the assent 
of a majority of the whole number of members, and the 
voting on the bill must be by yeas and nays ; the name 
of each member voting, and the way he voted, must be 
entered on the journal. 2 If the bill is agreed to by a ma- 
jority of the members of both houses it is sent to the 
governor. If the governor approves it, he signs it, and 
the bill becomes a law; if he does not approve it, he 
vetoes it ; that is, he returns it with his objections to the 
house in w T hich it originated. If both houses re-pass the 
bill by a two-thirds vote of all the members, it becomes 
a law without the approval of the governor. If it does 
not receive a two-thirds vote in both houses the bill is 
lost. If the governor fails either to sign or to return the 
bill within ten days, Sundays excepted, after it is pre- 
sented to him it becomes a law without his signature, 
unless the legislature, by adjournment within ten days, 
prevents its return, in which case the bill becomes a law 
unless the governor files the bill with his objections, in 

1 For the qualifications of senators and representatives see Art. IV. 
Sect. 3. 

2 See Art. IV. Sect. 12. 



THE STATE. 33 

the office of the secretary of state within ten days after 
such adjournment. The governor may veto certain items 
of a bill and approve the remaining items, in which case 
the vetoed items must be returned to the legislature for 
reconsideration, and the rest of the bill becomes a law. 1 

The Executive Department. 

54. The Executive Power of the State is vested in a 
governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor 
of public accounts, treasurer, superintendent of public 
instruction and attorney-general, each of whom is chosen 
by the electors of the State to serve for four years from 
the second Monday of January next after his election, 
except the treasurer, who is chosen to serve for two years. 
All of the executive officers, except the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, are required to reside at Springfield, and the public 
records, books and documents of the State are kept there. 2 

55. The Governor. — The supreme executive power of 
the State is vested in the governor. At the beginning of 
each session he is required to inform the General Assembly 
of the condition of the State and to recommend to its con- 
sideration such measures as he deems necessary and ex- 
pedient, to make a statement of all moneys received and 
paid out by him from any funds subject to his order, 
with vouchers for the same, and to present estimates of 
the amount of money necessary to be raised for the pur- 
pose of carrying on the government of the State. He 
may on extraordinary occasions call the General Assembly 
together and if at any time the two houses disagree as to 
the time of adjournment he may adjourn them to such 
time as he thinks proper, not beyond the first day of the 
next regular session. He has the power to appoint, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, all officers 
whose offices are established by the Constitution or which 

1 See Art. V. Sect. 16. 

2 See Art V. Sects. 1, 2. 



34 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

may be created by the General Assembly, except those 
whose appointment or election is otherwise provided for ; 
to fill vacancies, under certain restrictions, that may occur 
in any office ; to remove any officer whom he may ap- 
point ; to grant reprieves, commutations of sentence, and 
pardons for all offences after conviction. He is com- 
mander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the 
State. All bills passed by the General Assembly, that he 
approves, he signs and they are then laws. It is his duty 
to see that the laws are faithfully executed. His salary 
is $6000 per annum, and he has the use of the executive 
mansion for a residence. 1 

56. The Lieutenant-Governor is ex-officio the president 
of the Senate. In the case of the death, resignation, ab- 
sence from the State, removal from office or disability of 
the governor, the powers, duties, and emoluments of the 
office devolve upon the lieutenant-governor. In case of 
the death, resignation, removal from office or disability 
of the lieutenant-governor, the president pro tempore of the 
Senate becomes governor. The speaker of the House 
follows the president of the Senate in the order of suc- 
cession. The salary of the lieutenant-governor is $1000 
per annum. 2 

57. The Secretary of State calls the House of Repre- 
sentatives to order at the beginning of each new assembly 
and presides over it until the House elects its presiding 
officer. He keeps a record of all the official acts and pro- 
ceedings of the governor. He is the keeper of the seal of 
the State, and affixes it to such instruments as the law re- 
quires ; he is the custodian of all laws passed by the As- 
sembly ; they and the veto messages of the governor are 
prepared for publication and are distributed to the people 
under his supervision; the official bonds of all officers 

1 See Art. V. Sects. 6-16 inclusive. 

2 For the qualifications of the governor and lieutenant-governor, see 
Art V. Sect 5. 



THE STATE. 35 

and notaries public whom the governor commissions are 
kept by him ; all appointments, commissions and procla- 
mations issued by the governor are countersigned by him; 
he issues the charters of all corporations ; the certificates 
of nomination of all candidates for State offices, or for 
offices in divisions of the State greater than a county, are 
filed in his office ; he certifies to the county clerk of each 
county in which an election for such officers is to be held, 
the name and description of each person nominated for 
such offices ; he is the custodian of all election returns 
sent to him by the county clerks; he keeps a record of 
all death-warrants, respites, commutations and pardons. 
He is the agent of official communication between "the 
State and other States and the United States. He gives a 
bond of $100,000 as security for the faithful performance 
of his duties. His salary is $3500 per annum. 

58. The Auditor of Public Accounts examines the 
condition of the State treasury ; he examines and settles 
all accounts between the Commonwealth and other par- 
ties ; all bills against the State that he finds to be correct 
he adjusts by giving the party to whom the amount is 
due, an order on the State treasurer for the amount of 
the bilk This order is called the auditor's warrant. He 
has the power to compel the attendance of all persons 
having accounts against the State, to cause them to pro- 
duce their books and papers, to examine them under oath 
and to commit to prison any one who refuses to appear, to 
produce his books or to testify. He gives a bond for 
$50,000. His salary is $3500 per annum. 

59. The State Treasurer receives and has charge of 
all money, not otherwise provided for, belonging to the 
State, and pays it out as required by the auditor's war- 
rants ; immediately after paying a warrant he cancels it ; 
he is required to have a settlement with the auditor once 
in each month ; he is required to give a bond in the sum 
of $500,000, which the governor may at any time increase 



36 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

if he thinks it necessary. No person may be chosen as 
State treasurer for two successive terms. His salary is 
$3500 per annum. 

60. The Superintendent of Public Instruction has in 
charge the interests of the public school system of the 
State. It is his duty to consult with and advise county 
superintendents in matters relating to the discharge of 
their duties ; to decide appeals from decisions of county 
superintendents; to pay promptly to the proper parties 
any of the school fund that may come into his hands; 
and to promote the uniform and effective operation of the 
school laws of the State; when required he explains matters 
connected with the school law, the duties of school-officers, 
the rights and duties of parents, guardians, teachers and 
pupils : he makes a biennial report to the governor of the 
condition and requirements of the public schools, suggest- 
ing what changes and improvements are desirable. He 
gives a bond for $25,000. His salary is $3500 per annum. 

61. The Attorney-General is the legal adviser of the 
governor and of the heads of departments in all matters 
of law relating to their departments ; if required, he ad- 
vises the General Assembly as to the constitutionality of 
any bill; he is the attorney of the Commonwealth, he 
prosecutes its claims against other parties, and defends 
it in suits at law brought against it. He gives a bond 
for $5000. His salary is $3500 per annum. 

62. Various State Boards connected with the execu- 
tive department have been created by the General As- 
sembly from time to time, when required by the increase 
in population of the State, or as its interests and indus- 
tries increased and became more diversified. All the 
executive officers and boards of the State are required to 
report to the governor, at stated times, the condition and 
operations of their respective departments. From these 
reports the governor obtains the information w T hich he 
presents to the General Assembly in his messages. 



THE STATE. 37 

The various boards and officers connected with the ex- 
ecutive department are as follows : 

1. The State Board of Equalization is composed of the 
state auditor and one member from each congressional district, 
chosen by the electors to serve for four years. It is the duty of the 
board to equalize and to make uniform the assessment of taxes in 
the different counties throughout the State. 

2. The State Board of Agriculture is composed of one 
member from each of the congressional districts, elected to serve 
for two years by a convention of delegates from the county agri- 
cultural societies. In any county in which there is no agricultural 
society, the county board may send delegates. The board has charge 
of the State department of agriculture and the management of the 
State agricultural fair. 

3. The State Board of Horticulture is composed of the 
president and vice-president of the northern, the central and the 
southern district horticultural societies. It has control of the State 
fund for the promotion of gardening and tree-culture in the State. 

4. The State Board of Health consists of seven persons 
appointed by the governor. It is the duty of this board to enforce 
such measures as will prevent infectious and contagious diseases 
from becoming epidemic, to suggest and recommend the best 
methods of preventing disease and to grant licenses to physicians 
to practise medicine. 

5. The State Board of Public Charities consists of Rye 
members, appointed by the governor, to serve for five years. It is 
the duty of this board to visit and inspect, at least twice in each 
year, each charitable and correctional institution maintained or 
assisted by the State, and to see that they are properly managed. 

6. The State Board of Rail-way and Warehouse Com- 
missioners consist of three members appointed by the governor, 
to serve for two years. It is the duty of this board to examine into 
the condition of public warehouses and railroads and to see that 
they are conducted and managed in accordance with the laws. 
Each commissioner gives a bond of $20,000 and receives a salary 
of 83500 per annum. 

7. The Board of Commissioners of State Contracts 
consists of the secretary of state, the State auditor, the State treas- 
urer, and the attorney-general. It is the duty of this board to 
make contracts for the supply of stationery, fuel and other articles 
needed in the different departments, and for all printing needed by 



38 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

the State. The governor appoints an expert and experienced printer 
to assist them. 

8. The State Board of Canal Commissioners is com- 
posed of three members appointed by the governor, to serve for two 
years. This board has general control over the Illinois and Michi- 
gan Canal, and of the improvements in the navigation of the Illi- 
nois and the Little Wabash rivers. The bond of a member is 
$25,000, and of the treasurer of the board $50,000. Each commis- 
sioner receives five dollars for each day employed in the duties of 
the office. 

9. The State Bureau of Labor Statistics is composed of 
five members appointed by the governor, to serve for two years. 
Three of the members of the bureau must be manual laborers, and 
the other two must be employers of productive labor. The neces- 
sary expenses of the bureau are paid by the State, and the mem- 
bers are paid five dollars per day for thirty days. 

10. The State Board of Fish Commissioners is composed 
of three members appointed by the governor, to serve for three 
years. It is their duty to take such action as will increase and 
protect the supply of fish for food, and for this purpose the board 
is empowered to employ a skilled fish-culturist. The expenses of 
the board are limited to $300 per annum. 

11. The State Board of Live-stock Commissioners con- 
sists of three practical stock-breeders, appointed by the governor, 
to serve for three years. It is the duty of this board to investigate 
all cases of contagious or infectious disease among domestic animals ; 
it may quarantine or order diseased animals to be killed, and it 
recommends what damages should be paid the owners of the cattle 
that it orders to be destroyed. The expenses of the board are paid 
by the State, and the members receive five dollars per day for each 
day employed in the duties of the office. 

12. The State Board of Inspectors of Coal Mines is 
composed of five members, appointed by the governor, to serve for 
one year. The members of this board devote all their time to the 
inspection of coal mines with the view of securing the safety of the 
miners. Each member receives a salary of $1800 per annum. 

13. The Commission of Claims consists of three members, 
learned in the law, appointed by the governor from two different 
political parties, to serve for four years. This board acts as a 
court to hear and decide on claims against the State. Each mem- 
ber receives fifteen dollars per day for each day employed in the 
duties of the office, not exceeding ninety days in each year. 



THE STATE. 39 

14. The State Board of Dental Examiners consists of 
five members, appointed by the governor to serve for five years. 
The board examines persons who desire to practise dentistry and 
grants licenses to those found qualified. The expenses of the board 
are paid by the State, and each member receives five dollars per day 
for each day employed in the duties of the office. 

15. The State Board of Pharmacy consists of five mem- 
bers, appointed by the governor, to serve for five years. Each 
member of the board is required to have had ten years' experience 
in preparing medical prescriptions. The board examines persons 
desiring to practise pharmacy and grants certificates to those found 
qualified. The expenses of the board are paid by the State, and 
each member receives five dollars per day for each day employed 
in the duties of the office. 

16. The State Board of Returns of Elections is com- 
posed of the secretary of state, the State auditor, the State trea- 
surer and the attorney-general. It is the duty of this board within 
twenty days after every general election, 1 in the presence of the 
governor, to examine the returns made by the county clerks and 
declare the results of said election. 

17. The Chief Grain Inspector is appointed by the gov- 
ernor. It is his duty to inspect grain stored in warehouses. He 
nominates and the board of railway and warehouse commissioners 
appoints his assistants. His bond is §50,000. His salary and that 
of his assistants is fixed by the commissioners. 

18. The State Weigh-Master is appointed by the board of 
railway and warehouse commissioners. This officer or his assistants 
weigh the grain whenever there is an inspection of grain, and in- 
spect and verify the scales which are used in weighing grain. The 
salary of the weigh-master and his assistants is fixed by the com- 
missioners. 

19. The Factory Inspector is appointed by the governor. It 
is the duty of this officer and his assistants to visit and inspect fac- 
tories and shops, to see that minors between fourteen and sixteen 
years of age are allowed to work therein only under certain con- 
ditions, and to see that no females are employed therein more 
than eight hours in any one day or more than forty-eight hours 
in any one week. 

20. The State Veterinarian is appointed by the governor. 

1 A general election is one in which National, State, district, or county officers 
are chosen. 



40 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

He acts under the direction of the live-stock commissioners, and 
with the consent of the commission may appoint such assistants as 
he may require. His travelling expenses are paid by the State and 
he receives eight dollars for each day employed in the duties of his 
office. 

21. The State Superintendent of Banks is appointed by 
the governor, to serve for four years. It is his duty to exercise 
supervision over the savings banks in the State. He receives an 
annual report from the trustees of each savings bank, and he is re- 
quired to examine into the condition of each savings bank at least 
once in every two years. Before Feb. 1 of each year in which the 
General Assembly meets, he is required to report to the Assembly 
the condition of the savings banks in the State. 

22. The State Superintendent of Insurance is appointed 
by the governor, to serve for four years. He has general supervis- 
ion over the insurance companies that transact business in the 
State. His salary is $3500 per annum. 

23. The State Library is intended for the use of the State 
officers. The secretary of state is the librarian ; the control of the 
library is vested in a board of commissioners, consisting of the gov- 
ernor, the secretary of state and the State superintendent of public 
instruction. The same officials are also trustees of the State histor- 
ical library and the museum of natural history. 

24. The State Geologist is appointed by the trustees of the 
State historical library and the museum of natural history as their 
superintendent. It is his duty to make geological surveys of the 
State and to collect geological specimens. His salary is $2000 per 
annum. 

25. The State Entomologist is appointed by the governor, 
to serve for two years. It is his duty to make a special study of 
the insects injurious to vegetation, and to ascertain the most effec- 
tual method of exterminating them. 

26. For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals three 
officers are appointed by the governor ; one for East St. Louis, one 
for Peoria and one for Lake township near Chicago ; it is their duty 
to see that the cattle and live-stock brought to the stock-yards are 
properly cared for. 

27. Notaries Public. — The governor may appoint as many 
notaries public as he thinks necessary, to serve for four years, pro- 
vided that each appointment must be asked for by not less than 
fifty electors of the city, town or precinct for which the notary is 
appointed. A notary is empowered to administer oaths, attest sig- 



THE STATE, 41 

natures and to take depositions and acknowledgments of docu- 
ments, which shall be received as legal evidence. 

28. Commissioners of Deeds may be appointed by the gov- 
ernor. These commissioners are citizens of other States, territories 
or foreign countries ; they are empowered to take depositions, acknow- 
ledgments of deeds and other documents which shall be legal in 
Illinois. 

29. A Public Administrator for each county in the State 
may be appointed by the governor. It is the duty of this officer to 
administer and settle the estates of deceased persons that have no 
other administrator. 

30. The Board of Trustees of the Lincoln Homestead 
consists of the governor, the secretary of state, the State auditor, 
the State treasurer, and the superintendent of public instruction. 
Free access to the homestead is granted to the public. 

31. The Board of Penitentiary Commissioners are two 
boards, each having three members, appointed by the governor to 
serve for six years. One board has supervision and care of the State 
prison at Joliet, appoints the warden, physician, chaplain, and other 
officers 5 the other board exercises the same duties in connection 
with the State prison at Chester. Each commissioner gives a bond 
of 825,000 and receives a salary of $1500 per annum. 

32. The Adjutant General is appointed by the governor. 
He is the chief of the governor's military staff and is his chief mili- 
tary executive officer. He issues all the orders of the governor to 
the National Guard, and is the medium of communication between 
the National Guard and the governor. 1 

33. The National Guard of the State.— Every male citi- 
zen of the State between eighteen and forty-five years of age, if not 
exempted by law, 2 belongs to the militia of the State. The organ- 
ized militia constitutes the National Guard of the State. 

1 In the appointment of officers and boards by the governor, the advice and 
consent of the Senate is required, excepting for the adjutant-general, the com- 
missioners of deeds, and the expert printer. 

2 See Art. XII. 



42 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

The Judicial Department. 

63. The Judicial Power of the State is vested in a 
supreme court, and in lower courts known as appellate 
courts, circuit courts, county courts, courts of justices of 
the peace, and police magistrates' courts. 1 

64. The Justices' Courts have jurisdiction 2 in civil 
cases in which the amount involved does not exceed $200, 
in minor criminal cases such as misdemeanor, assault and 
battery, etc. The justice of the peace has authority to 
release on bail, or to commit to jail to await trial by a 
higher court, any person accused of having committed a 
serious crime. 

Police Magistrates' Courts are established in cities. The 
police magistrate has jurisdiction in all cases of violation 
of city laws and ordinances, and he has also the jurisdic- 
tion of a justice of the peace. 

65. The County Courts have original jurisdiction in all 
matters connected with the settlement of the estates of 

, deceased persons ; in the appointment of guardians for 
minors ; of persons called conservators, to care for the in- 
terests of those who are mentally incapable of caring for 
themselves and in matters relating to apprentices. 

The county courts have appellate jurisdiction in cases 

1 See Art. VI. Sect. 1. For the courts of Cook county, see Art. VL 
Sect. 23. 

2 By the jurisdiction of a court is meant its authority to hear and 
decide cases brought before it; the jurisdiction of a court maybe either 
original, appellate, exclusive or concurrent. 

By the original jurisdiction of. a court is meant its authority to hear 
and decide cases which originate or are first brought to trial in that 
court. By the appellate jurisdiction of a court is meant its authority to 
hear and decide cases that have been previously tried in a lower court, 
and which have been appealed to a higher court for further trial. 

If the law provides that certain classes of lawsuits may be begun only 
in a certain court, then that court has exclusive jurisdiction in such cases ; 
if the suits may be begun in any one of two or more courts, then those 
courts have concurrent jurisdiction. 



THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 43 

appealed from the courts of justices of the peace, or magis- 
trates. 

The county courts have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases 
connected with the sale of real estate for the purpose of 
collecting the taxes due thereon. 

The county courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the 
justices' courts both in civil and criminal cases, and with 
the circuit courts in civil cases in which the amount in- 
volved does not exceed $1000, and in criminal cases of a 
lower grade than felony. 1 

Probate Courts. — In counties having a population of 
over 50,000 a probate court may be established and the 
matters over which the county court exercised original 
jurisdiction are then transferred to the probate court. 2 

66. The Circuit Courts. — For the administration of 
justice, the State is divided into fourteen circuits. In 
each of these circuits the electors choose three judges to 
serve for six years. Two or more terms of the circuit 
court are held each year in each county by two of the 
judges. 3 The sheriff of the county in which the court is 
held executes the decrees of the court. 4 The clerk of the 
circuit court is chosen by the electors of the county. 

The jurisdiction of the circuit court is both original and 
appellate. It has original jurisdiction in such civil and 
criminal cases as may be first brought to trial before it, 5 

1 A felony is a crime the punishment for which is death or imprison- 
ment in the State penitentiary. 

2 See Art. VI. Sects. 18, 20. 

3 The third judge serves in the appellate court. The judges hold 
court in each county of the circuit, passing from one county to another. 
This is the origin of the phrase " travelling the circuit." 

4 See \ 82, page 53. 

5 Criminal cases are brought before the circuit court for trial by ac- 
tion of the grand jury, which is a body of twenty-three electors selected 
by the county board. The grand jury hears the charges made against 
any person accused of crime and if the twelve or more grand jurors 



44 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

and appellate jurisdiction in cases brought before it by 
appeal from the justices', the magistrates', and the county 
courts. 

No person is eligible to the office of judge of the circuit, 
the county, the magistrates', or the justices' court, unless 
he is at least twenty-five years of age, a citizen of the 
United States, has resided in the State for at least five 
years immediately preceding his election, and is an elector 
of the circuit, county, city, town, or township in which he 
shall be elected. The salary of the judges of the circuit 
courts is $3500 per annum, except for the judges in Cook 
county, who receive $7000 per annum. 1 

67. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges chosen 
by the electors of the State, to serve for nine years. They 
elect one of their number as chief justice. For the elec- 
tion of the judges of the supreme court, the State is divided 
into seven districts. For the purpose of holding court, 
the State is divided into a southern, a central, and a 
northern grand division. In the southern grand division 
the court is held in Mount Vernon, in the central grand 
division it is held in Springfield, and in the northern 

believe that the evidence is sufficient to convict they prepare a written 
charge or indictment against the accused person, who is then brought 
before the court for trial by the petit jury, which consists of twelve 
electors selected by lot from a list furnished by the county board. The 
commission of a crime affects not only the person injured, but is an 
offence against, and a violation of, the laws of the State. When a per- 
son accused of crime is brought before the court for trial, the charge 
against him is made in the name and by the authority of the people of 
the State ; the attorney who prosecutes the charge, although a county 
officer, is known as the State's attorney. The accused person is entitled 
to have the services of a lawyer to defend him against the oharge. 
When the jury has heard the evidence on both sides, the judge explains 
the law and the jury decide upon the verdict. The verdict of the petit 
jury must be unanimous. If the accused is found guilty the judge pro- 
nounces the sentence according to the requirements of the law. 
1 See Art. VL Sects. 12 to 17 inclusive. 



THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 45 

grand division it is held in Ottawa. In each of the grand 
divisions a clerk of the court is chosen by the electors to 
serve for six years. The sheriff of the county in which 
the court meets is the executive officer of the court. 

The jurisdiction of the supreme court is both original 
and appellate. Its original jurisdiction is exercised in cases 
relating to the revenue of the State : in cases commanding 
a person or a lower court to perform or not to perform 
some specified act; and in cases in which persons con- 
fined or imprisoned, petition the court to decide whether 
their imprisonment is lawful. Its appellate jurisdiction 
is exercised in all cases that have been previously tried 
by a lower court, and which, as provided by law, have 
been appealed to the supreme court for a final decision. 
It has appellate jurisdiction in all criminal cases, and in 
all civil cases in which the amount in dispute is more 
than one thousand dollars. Most of the cases tried by 
the supreme court are appellate and have been previously 
tried by a lower court. When a case is appealed from a 
lower court to the supreme court, the evidence submitted 
in the lower court and the record of the case, printed in 
pamphlet form, are presented to the supreme court, which 
examines the evidence and hears the arguments of coun- 
sel. No new evidence is admitted, and there is no jury. 
The opinions of a majority of the justices form the opin- 
ion or decision of the court, which is final unless the case 
involves the Constitution or laws of the United States, 
when it may be appealed to one of the inferior courts of 
the United States, and possibly by successive appeals it 
may reach the supreme court of the United States. The 
reporter of the supreme court, who is appointed by the 
judges, compiles the decisions of the court and superin- 
tends their publication. These volumes constitute the 
Supreme Court Reports, and are the precedents for subse- 
quent decisions by both the supreme court and the lower 



46 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

courts. The salary of the judges of the supreme court 
is $5000 per annum. 1 

68. Appellate Courts. — In order to relieve the supreme 
court of some of its duties, the General Assembly under 
the authority of the Constitution has created four appel- 
late court districts in the State. 2 The judges of the supreme 
court select certain judges of the circuit courts to act as 
appellate judges. 3 The electors in each of the four appel- 
late districts choose a clerk of the appellate court to serve 
for six years. The sheriff of the county in which the court 
is held executes the decrees of the court. Cases may be 
appealed to this court from the lower courts, as provided 
by law. 4 

1 See Art. VI. Sects. 1 to 10 inclusive. 

2 The northern grand division of the supreme court forms the first and 
second appellate districts, the central grand division is the third, and 
the southern grand division is the fourth. 

3 The electors choose three judges in each circuit. One of the judges 
from each circuit is selected by the judges of the supreme court to 
serve as a judge in the appellate court, the other two serve as judges in 
the circuit court. 

4 See Art. VI. Sect 11. 



THE REVENUE OF THE STATE. 47 

The Revenue op the State. 

69. The Revenue of the State required to defray the 
expenses of the State government is derived from taxation 
on all taxable property in the State, from fees received for 
granting charters, from licenses, fines, and penalties, from 
the sale of land belonging to the State, from escheats, 1 and 
from various other sources. 

70. The Illinois Central Railroad furnishes in con- 
stantly increasing amounts a large portion of the revenue 
of the State, and it has exercised a powerful influence in 
developing the wealth of the people of the State. 

In 1850, through the influence of Senator Douglas, 
Congress enacted a law, giving to the State of Illinois the 
right of way through the public lands for a railway, ex- 
tending from Cairo to the southern end of the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal, and thence to extend one branch to 
Chicago and another to Galena. The United States also 
gave to the State every alternate section, for six sections 
in width, on each side of the road and of its branches, to 
aid in the construction of the road. This road was to be 
completed in ten years. • The State legislature immedi- 
ately granted this land to the Illinois Central Railway 
Company, on condition that seven per cent, of the gross 
earnings of the road should be semi-annually paid into 
the State treasury. This railway brought about a rapid 
settlement of the State, and the semi-annual income paid 
by the railway to the State has made our State taxes 
comparatively light. This amount for the years 1855- 
1890 inclusive, amounted to more than $12,000,000: while 
for the single year 1890 it was $486,281. The Constitu- 
tion of Illinois provides that no authority shall ever re- 
lease the Central Railway from this obligation. 

1 Escheats. — If a citizen of a State dies leaving property, but having 
no heirs and not having made a will, the State becomes the heir, and 
the property escheats to the State — that is, it becomes the property of 
the State. 



48 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



The County. 

71. The County. — Illinois is divided into one hundred 
and two counties, each of which has a county seat in 
which the sessions of the county courts are held, the 
county offices located, and the records of the county 
kept. 

72. The Officers of the County are the county board 
of supervisors, or the county board of commissioners, 1 
the judge of the county court, the county clerk, the 
clerk of the circuit court, the recorder of deeds, the 
State's attorney, the county treasurer, the sheriff, the 
coroner, the county surveyor, and the county superin- 
tendent of schools, all of whom, except the members of 
the county board, are chosen by the electors of the county 
to serve for four years. All the county officers must be 
electors of the county, and they continue in office until 
their successors are elected and qualified. The salaries of 
the county officers are usually determined by the county 
board. All officers who have the care or handling of any 
of the county's money are required to give bonds satis- 
factory to the county board, for its security and safe- 
keeping. 

73. The Government of the County, like that of the 
State, is tripartite in form. The legislative power is vested 
in the county board, the judicial power is vested in the 
courts, and the executive power in the other officers of 
the county and in the committees appointed by the county 
board. 2 

74. Two Forms of County Government exist in Illi- 
nois. In counties that have adopted township organiza- 
tion, the legislative power is vested in the county board of 

1 It is usual to speak of either of these boards as " the county board." 

2 For the government of Cook county, see Art. X. Sect. 7. 



THE COUNTY. 49 

supervisors. 1 In counties that have not adopted town- 
ship organization, the legislative power is vested in the 
county board of commissioners. 

75. The County Board of Supervisors. — In each 
tow T n in a county that has adopted township organiza- 
tion, a town supervisor is chosen annually by the electors. 2 
The supervisors and assistant supervisors from all the 
tow T ns in the county compose the county board, which 
holds two regular meetings in each year, one on the 
second Monday in July, the other on the second Tues- 
day in September. Special meetings may be held when- 
ever required by one-third of the members of the board. 
These meetings are held in the court-house of the county. 
The board elects one of its number to serve as chairman 
and the county clerk is secretary of the board. The chair- 
man appoints committees to whom the various matters of 
business are referred. The work of the board is per- 
formed by these committees, subject to the approval of 
the board. In order that the people may know what 
business is being transacted by the board, the meetings 
are always public and provision is made for publishing 
the proceedings. The board has the management of the 
county's money and the control of all public buildings 
and other property belonging to the county ; it deter- 
mines the amount of money necessary for carrying on the 
government of the county and levies the taxes necessary to 
provide the money ; 3 it audits all bills and claims against 

1 Eighty-two counties have adopted the township form of organiza- 
tion. 

2 If the population of the town exceeds 4000, an assistant supervisor 
is chosen for each additional 2500 citizens. 

3 The tax for county purposes may not exceed seventy-five cents on 
each one hundred dollars of valuation. If the county was in debt 
when the present Constitution was adopted, the board may levy a tax of 
one dollar on each one hundred dollars of valuation, to provide the 
means for paying the principal and interest on the debt. Any higher 

4 



50 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

the county and orders them paid when approved ; it pro- 
vides suitable buildings, furniture, fuel, books, stationery, 
and other necessary articles for the county offices; it rep- 
resents the county in all lawsuits in which the county is 
interested ; it fixes the salaries of the officers and em- 
ployes of the county; it examines and audits the ac- 
counts of the county treasurer ; it prepares the jury-list 
by selecting the names of electors from the different towns 
in the county, and placing them in a jury-box, from which 
are drawn the names of the electors who serve as petit 
and grand jurors ; it has authority to open, close, or change 
the location of roads, to build bridges, to grant licenses, and 
to offer rewards ; it has the management of the poor-house 
and the care of the paupers ; it acts as a board of equaliza- 
tion of taxes, to whom citizens of the county may appeal 
if they think their property has been assessed at more 
than its just value ; it locates the places for holding elections 
and provides the ballot-boxes to be used in all elections ; 
and it publishes a statement of the receipts and expendi- 
tures of the county. 

76. The County Board of Commissioners. 1 — In coun- 
ties that have not adopted township organization the 
county board consists of three members, one of whom is 
chosen annually by the electors to serve for three years. 
The duties of the board of commissioners are mainly the 
same as those of the county board of supervisors in coun- 
ties under township organization ; in addition to which, 
much of the local government of the township is admin- 
istered by the commissioners. 2 

77. The Judge of the County Court presides in the 
county court. 3 The Constitution provides that the county 



rate of taxation must be submitted to and approved by the electors be- 
fore it can be levied. 

1 For the qualifications of commissioners, see Art. VI. Sect. 17. 

2 See If 104 page 63. 3 See fl 65, page 42, and If 66 } page 44. 



THE COUNTY. 51 

judge must be a citizen of the United States, at least 
twenty-five years of age, that he shall have resided in the 
State for at least five years immediately preceding his elec- 
tion, and that he shall be an elector of the county in which 
he may be elected. 

78. The County Clerk and the Clerk of the Circuit 
Court. — The county clerk is the clerk of the county 
board. He keeps a record of all its proceedings and of 
the orders drawn by it on the county treasurer for the 
payment of money ; the bonds of the county officers are 
kept in his office ; he keeps an index of all documents 
kept in his office so that they may be readily referred to ; 
he issues marriage licenses; after he has received from 
the proper officers a statement of the amount of taxes to 
be raised in the county for State, county, township, and 
town purposes, he computes the amount of tax to be paid 
by each citizen of the county and provides the tax-col- 
lectors with books showing these amounts. At least thirty 
days before any general election, 1 or at least twenty days 
before any special election, he is required to give notice of 
such election to the proper officers ; 2 he provides the bal- 
lots, poll-books, and necessary blanks to be used in general 
elections, and sends them to the judges of elections in 
each election district of the county ; with the assistance 
of two justices of the peace he examines the returns made 
by the clerks of elections, and makes abstracts of the re- 
sult ; these abstracts are preserved in his office as part of 
the county records ; he sends a copy of the abstracts to 



1 See note, page 39. 

2 The county clerk delivers to the supervisors in each township, or to 
the sheriff, if the county is not under township organization, three 
copies of the notice for each precinct or district in which the election 
is to be held, stating the date of the election and what offices are to be 
filled. These notices are posted in three of the most public places in 
the district or precinct. 



52 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

the secretary of state ; l he furnishes certificates of election 
to the persons elected to county offices ; he is ex-officio the 
clerk of the county court. 

As clerk of the county court his duties and those of the 
clerk of the circuit court are similar. They are required 
to attend the sessions of their respective courts and to 
make a record of their proceedings ; they issue subpoenas 
or notices calling into court such persons as the judges 
may direct to be present ; they call jurors and witnesses 
before the court and administer the oath to them, and 
they perform such other duties as may be necessary. 

79. The Recorder of Deeds. — In most of the counties 
of the State the clerk of the circuit court is ex-officio the 
recorder of deeds. 2 This officer has charge of the books 
in which are recorded all transfers of real estate. The 
people are constantly buying and selling land, executing 
deeds and mortgages, and making contracts of various 
kinds. All deeds, mortgages, and many other papers are 
by law required to be recorded in the office of the recorder 
of deeds. So important is the accuracy and exactness of 
the record, that the law requires the recorder to endorse on 
every document recorded in his office, the date, the hour and 
the minute of its entry on his record, and also the number 
and page of the book in which the record is made. 

80. The State's Attorney prosecutes all persons ac- 
cused of crime w T ho are brought before the court for trial; 
he acts as attorney for the county in all cases in which it 
is a party ; he advises the county officers on all matters 
of law connected with their departments, and in general 
acts for the county in all cases in which its legal interests 
are concerned. The duties of the State's attorney are 
such that one "learned in the law," that is, a lawyer, 
must necessarily be chosen for this office. 

1 When an election is held for State officers, the abstract is directed 
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. See Art. V. Sect 4* 

2 See Art. X. Sect. 8. 



THE COUNTY. 53 

81. The County Treasurer receives and disburses the 
money of the county that comes into his hands ; he is 
required to keep his books open for inspection and to re- 
port his receipts and expenditures at each regular meeting 
of the county board. No person may be elected county 
treasurer for two successive terms. 1 

82. The Sheriff attends at all sessions of the county 
and circuit court; he opens and adjourns the court 
and preserves order; he serves the notices on persons 
to appear in court that are summoned by the court, 
and notifies witnesses that are subpoenaed ; he executes 
all the orders and decrees of the court in both civil 
and criminal cases ; he seizes and sells the property of 
debtors against whom judgments have been issued ; he 
has the care of the county jail and is responsible for the 
safe-keeping of the prisoners. He may appoint as many 
deputies as may be necessary, and he is responsible for 
their official acts. He is responsible for and is required to 
maintain the peace of the county. If he sees a person 
violating a law he may arrest him without a warrant and 
take him before a judicial officer for trial and punish- 
ment. In case of a riot he may summon the posse comi- 
tatus, that is, the citizens of the county, to assist him ; if 
this aid is not sufficient, he may call upon the governor 
of the State ; if the State is unable to subdue the riot, the 
governor may call upon the President, who shall in that 
case employ the armed forces of the United States for the 
maintenance of the laws of the State. No person may be 
elected sheriff for two successive terms. 2 

1 In counties not under township organization, the county treasurer 
is ex-officio the county assessor of taxes and the sheriff is ex-officio the 
collector of taxes. 

2 The decrees of a court, if to be executed in another county, are exe- 
cuted by the sheriff of that county ; if to be executed in another State, 
they are executed with the approval and direction of the governor of 
that State, through a sheriff in that State. 



54 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

83. The Coroner. — The principal duty of the coroner 
is to hold an inquest over the body of any person who 
has died by accident or violence, or the cause of whose 
death is not apparent. He summons a " coroner's jury," 
which consists of any six electors that he may select. The 
jury investigates the cause of the person's death. If the 
jury finds that a crime has been committed, and names the 
person whom they believe to have committed it, the coro- 
ner commits the accused person to jail to await trial by 
the circuit court. In case of the death of the sheriff or of 
his inability to perform the duties of his office, the coroner 
acts as sheriff. 

84. The County Surveyor is elected to secure accuracy 
and skill in the construction of roads and bridges and in 
the survey of land. His knowledge tends to bring all 
engineering work done for the county to a desirable uni- 
formity and economy. He prepares maps of the county, 
makes plans of surveys, and frequently serves the cause 
of justice by surveying disputed claims. 

85. The County Superintendent of Schools. It is 
the duty of the county superintendent of schools to exer- 
cise supervision of the public schools of the county and to 
promote their interests; at least once in every three months 
he holds examinations of persons desiring to become 
teachers in the public schools, and grants certificates to 
those found competent ; he conducts annually a " Teachers' 
Institute," which must continue at least five days ; he as- 
sists and encourages the formation of teachers' associa- 
tions, and he is required to visit each public school in the 
county at least once in every year. Matters of dispute 
between school directors and others in relation to school 
affairs are frequently referred to the county superinten- 
dent for adjustment, but an appeal may be taken from his 
decision to the State superintendent of public instruction. 

The county superintendent receives from the State 
treasurer the county's share of the school fund and ap- 



THE COUNTY. 55 

portions it to the townships on the basis of their respec- 
tive school population; 1 he examines the bonds of town- 
ship treasurers, and if approved by him, he pays to them 
any money due the respective townships that may come 
into his hands for school purposes ; he examines the ac- 

1 The School Fund of the State is derived from various sources. 
The enabling Act for the admission of Illinois as a State provided that 
the proceeds of the sale of public lands, due to Illinois, should be ex- 
pended in making roads leading to the State. By the influence of 
Judge Nathaniel Pope, delegate in Congress from Illinois, this pro- 
vision was changed to provide that three per cent, of the amount should 
be devoted to the encouragement of learning, of which amount one- 
sixth was to be used for the purposes of a college or university. The 
Act granted Section 16 of each township " for the use of the inhabitants 
of such township for the use of schools," and it also granted two entire 
townships for the use of a seminary of learning. The entire value of 
the lands contained in Section 16 of each township is estimated at about 
$11,000,000, of which the land yet unsold is estimated to be worth about 

$4,625,000. 

In 1835 the General Assembly created a county school fund of 
$162,000, the income from which is added to the school fund. 

In 1836 Congress divided the money which had accumulated in the 
national treasury among the States, according to their population. The 
share of Illinois, amounting to about $335,000 and known as the sur- 
plus revenue, was added to the school fund. This amount was tech- 
nically called a loan to the State, but practically it was a gift, as there 
is little probability that its repayment will ever be demanded. 

The permanent school fund amounts to nearly $12,000,000. The 
whole amount is loaned to the State, and for its use the State pays an 
annual interest of about $635,000. The interest on the college and 
seminary fund is divided equally between the Normal University at 
Normal and the Southern Normal University at Carbondale ; the 
remainder is divided among the counties according to their school 
population. In addition to the interest on the permanent school fund 
paid by the State, the General Assembly makes liberal appropriations 
for the support of schools. The State auditor sends to each county 
superintendent a warrant for the amount of the school fund due to his 
county. This amount is divided by the superintendent among the 
townships, according to the number of persons under twenty-one 
years of age. 



56 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

counts of the township treasurers and reports any irregu- 
larity in these accounts to the township trustees ; he con- 
ducts the sales of school lands in the county ; he is required 
to present annually to the county board a detailed state- 
ment of the school funds that have been received and 
disbursed by him : he reports to the State superintendent 
the condition of the schools of the county. He receives 
a salary of four dollars per day for each day employed in 
the duties of the office, and one dollar per day additional 
for expenses while visiting schools ; he receives also two 
per cent, of all school money which passes through his 
hands and three per cent, of the amount received from 
sales of school lands in the county. 1 



The size of the county is determined by the General 
Assembly when the county is formed, provided that no 
county may be formed having an area of less than four 
hundred square miles; 2 usually in a county of this size a 
citizen may leave his home, attend to any business he 
may have at the county-seat, and return the same day. 
As the facilities for travel improve, the interests of the 
people of a county become closely identified and lead 
them to assemble at county fairs and other county meet- 
ings and give cause for a proper county pride. 

The division of the State into counties, and our sys- 
tem of county government, had their origin in similar 
features that existed in England long before the Norman 
Conquest; but the officers of the county, or shire, as it 
was then called, were not chosen by the people ; they were 
appointed by the king or by a representative of the king. 

The early colonists of this country brought with them 

i When necessary the county superintendent, with the approval of 
the county board, may appoint one or more assistant county superin- 
tendents. 

2 See Art. X Sect. L 



THE COUNTY. 57 

from England the forms and customs with which they 
were familiar. England, before the Norman Conquest, 
was divided into shires, a shire being a share or part of 
the whole country. The executive officer in the shire was 
the shire-reeve, the predecessor of our sheriff; the power of 
the sheriff to call the posse comitatus to his aid may readily 
be traced to the old " hue and cry." When the Normans 
conquered England they changed the name of shire to 
county. In early English literature we may read of the 
" crowner," an officer appointed by the Crown, who has 
his successor in the coroner of to-day. 



58 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



The Town. 

86. The Town.—The New England method of local 
government in which the town is the unit, and the Vir- 
ginia method in which the county is the unit, are both to 
be found in Illinois. It may, indeed, be said that the 
problem is being worked out in this State as to which of 
the two methods gives to the people the best form of local 
government. 

The original divisions of the county were the congress- 
ional townships. 1 The school law of the State provides 
that each congressional township shall be a school town- 
ship. When township organization is adopted, the school 
township becomes a town in all respects except in regard 
to school affairs, so that a town has two organizations, that 
of the town and that of the school township. The bound- 
aries of the town and of the school township are usually, 
but not always, the same. Local government in the town 
is carried on by means of the town meeting and by officers 
chosen in each town by the electors. 

87. The Government of the Town, like that of the 
State and the county, is threefold in its form. The judi- 
cial power is vested in the justice of the peace, the execu- 
tive power in the other town officers, and the legisla- 
tive power is exercised by the electors themselves assem- 
bled in town meeting. The town meeting is an example 
of a pure democracy, as distinguished from a represen- 
tative democracy. 

88. The Officers of the Town are the supervisor, 2 

1 The congressional township was created by the government survey ; 
it is not a political division of the county and has no connection with 
Jocal government ; it is simply a tract of land six miles square, insti- 
tuted to form a convenient method of describing and locating land. 

2 An assistant supervisor is chosen if the township has a population 
of over 4000, and one for every additional 2500. His only duty in the 



THE TOWN. 59 

the town clerk, the assessor of taxes, the tax-collector, 
three highway commissioners, the justices of the peace, and 
the constables, all of whom are chosen by the electors at 
the town meeting. In addition to these officers there is 
a pound-master, who sometimes is chosen by the electors 
and sometimes appointed by the board of appointment ; 
a commissioner of Canada thistles, who is appointed by 
the board of auditors; and overseers of highways, who 
are appointed by the highway commissioners. All of 
the town officers who receive or have charge of the town's 
money are required to give a bond for its security and 
safe-keeping. 

89. The Town Meeting is held on the first Tuesday 
in April. At this meeting the town officers are chosen 
by the electors, voting by ballot. Several hours of the 
day are devoted to hearing the reports of the officers for 
the preceding year ; deciding the amount of money to be 
raised by taxation to provide for the expenses of the 
town, such as constructing and repairing roads and 
bridges, the support of schools, providing for the poor, 
etc., and in legislating for the general interests of the 
town. The voting on these matters usually is viva voce, 
that is, those favoring any motion say Yes, and those 
opposing say No. 

When the voting for officers is over, the votes are 
counted by the chairman of the meeting, the supervisor, 
the assessor and the tax-collector, and the names of those 
who have been elected are announced. 1 

90. The Supervisor is chosen to serve for one year; 
he represents the town in any lawsuits in which it is inter- 
town is to serve as a member of the town board of health, but as a 
member of the county board he has the same power as a supervisor. 

1 Special Town Meetings must be called if the supervisor, town 
clerk and justice of the peace, or any two of these officers, with at least 
fifteen other electors, file with the clerk a statement that a special town 
meeting is necessary. 



60 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

ested ; he provides for the poor of the town who apply to 
him for help ; he is treasurer of the town's money, 1 except- 
ing the money used for school purposes and for highways 
and bridges ; he is required to make a report to the audi- 
tors, on the day of the annual town meeting, of all money 
received and paid out by him ; he posts the notices of all 
elections in three of the most public places in each voting 
precinct or division of the town. 

91. The Town Clerk is elected to serve for one year. 
He gives notice of all town meetings and makes a record 
of their proceedings ; he provides the ballots to be used in 
elections for town officers ; he is clerk of the board of health, 
of the highway commissioners, and a member and clerk of 
the board of auditors ; on or before the second Tuesday of 
August he sends to the county clerk a statement of the 
amount of money that will be needed during the follow- 
ing year for the town's expenses, which is to be raised by 
taxation. 

92. The Assessor of Taxes is chosen to serve for one 
year. It is his duty to make a just valuation of the prop- 
erty of every citizen and send a statement of this valua- 
tion to the county clerk. 

93. The Tax-Collector is chosen to serve for one year. 
It is his duty to collect the taxes which have been assessed 
and pay them over to those authorized to receive them. 2 
The amount collected for road-tax he pays to the highway 
commissioners, the school-tax is paid to the treasurer of the 
school fund and the remainder is paid to the supervisor. 

94. The Highway Commissioners are chosen to serve 
for three years, one commissioner being chosen annually. 
They elect one of their number treasurer, who receives all 
money collected for road purposes and for bridges, and 

1 All officers who have charge of any of the town's money are required 
to give a bond for its safe-keeping and security. 

2 The same person is usually elected to serve as assessor and collector, 
except in towns having a large population. 



THE TOWN. 61 

pays it out on the order of the other two commissioners ; 
the highway commissioners may locate, build, repair, 
change and vacate roads, build and repair bridges, erect 
guide-posts, and provide watering-places; they are em- 
powered to levy and collect a road-tax ; they divide the 
town into road districts and appoint overseers for the 
districts ; they are required to report annually to the board 
of auditors their receipts and expenditures and a state- 
ment of the work that has been done. 

95. The Justices of the Peace are chosen to serve for 
four years. If the population of the town is less than 
2000, two justices are chosen; an additional justice is 
chosen for each 1000 of population until five justices 
have been elected. The humblest court in the land, the 
court upon which all other courts are founded, and the 
court of greatest antiquity, is the justice's court. The 
justices have jurisdiction in civil cases in which the 
amount does not exceed $200, and in minor criminal 
cases such as misdemeanors, 1 assault, assault and battery, 2 
etc. ; in more serious cases he sends the case to a higher 
court, and releases the accused person on his giving bail 
or security to appear in court when summoned for trial. 
If the accused cannot give bail satisfactory to the justice, 
and in cases which are not bailable, such as murder, the 
accused is sent to jail, where he remains until his case is 
tried in court, unless he is released by a judge of the court 
through a writ of habeas corpus. 3 

The justice of the peace is authorized to administer 

1 A misdemeanor is an offence punishable by fine or short imprison- 
ment. 

2 An assault is an attempt to strike or injure a person. Assault and 
battery is an attempt that succeeds in striking or injuring a person. 

3 A writ of habeas corpus is an order issued by a judge directing the 
sheriff to produce the accused person in court, that the cause of his im- 
prisonment may be inquired into. 



62 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

oaths or affirmations, to perform the marriage ceremony 
and to attest signatures, deeds and other documents. 

In cases of sudden death requiring investigation by the 
coroner, the justice may perform the duties of the coroner 
if that officer cannot be present. 

96. The Constables are chosen to serve for four years. 
If the population of the town is less than 2000, two 
constables are chosen; an additional constable is chosen 
for every additional 1000 of population until five con- 
stables have been elected. The constable holds an office 
of great antiquity. He is responsible for the peace of the 
community, and is empowered to arrest all persons whom 
he may find violating the laws or committing crime, and 
accused persons whose arrest has been legally ordered by 
a justice of the peace. 1 He serves all the writs and orders 
of the justice, and delivers at the county jail those persons 
committed thereto by the justice. 

97. The Pound-Master has the charge of horses, cattle, 
and other animals found running at large, of which he 
keeps possession until the owners pay the pound-master's 
charges. 

98. The Commissioner of Canada Thistles destroys 
all the Canada thistles which he may find, the purpose 
being to exterminate this weed. 

99. The Overseers of Highways are appointed by 
the highway commissioners; one overseer is appointed 
for each road district in the town. Every citizen is 
obliged to pay taxes for the purpose of keeping the road 
in repair ; he may pay it in money or he may pay it by 
working on the roads, usually at the rate of $1.25 per 
day. This work is done under the supervision of the 



1 If he is unable to arrest an accused person or to subdue a riot, he 
may call upon the posse comitatus, that is, the citizens of the town, to 
help him. If their aid is not sufficient, he may call upon the county 
sheriff. See fl 82, page 53. 



THE TOWNSHIP. 63 

overseer, who is required to keep the roads in his district 
in good order. 

100. The Board of Auditors, which consists of the 
justices, the supervisor and the town clerk, examine 
and audit all claims and bills against the town, and the 
books of the supervisor and highway commissioners. 

101. The Board of Health consists of the supervisors, 
the town clerk and the assessor. It is the duty of 
this board to take such measures and enforce such regu- 
lations as will promote and protect the health of the com- 
munity. 

102. The Board of Equalization of Taxes consists of 
the supervisors, the town clerk and the assessor. It 
is the duty of this board to equalize the valuations of 
property as made by the assessor so that taxation may be 
just and uniform. If a citizen thinks that his property 
has been assessed in excess of its value he may appear 
before this board and appeal from the assessor's valua- 
tion. 

103. The Board of Appointment consists of the jus- 
tices, the supervisor and the town clerk. It is the duty 
of this board to fill vacancies that may happen in any 
of the town offices. 

The Township. 

104. In counties which have not adopted township 
organization, the divisions of the county are known as 
townships. The only township officers chosen by the 
electors are the school trustees. The county board 
divides the county into election precincts, and in each 
precinct the electors choose the same number of justices 
and constables as are chosen in a town of equal popu- 
lation. The county treasurer is ex-officio the assessor of 
taxes, and the sheriff is ex-officio the tax-collector. The 
other matters of local government are administered by 
the county board. 



64 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

The township is one of the oldest institutions in gov- 
ernment ; we can trace its history back to our Saxon an- 
cestors in the wilds of Germany. Around the houses in 
a German village there was built for purposes of defence, 
a hedge or fence called a tun, from which is derived our 
word town. The village with the surrounding country 
containing the fields and pastures of the townsmen, was 
called the tun-scipe or township. In these tun-scipes the 
heads of the families met together to make such regu- 
lations as their common interests required. 

School Trustees, School Directors and Boards 
of Education. 

105. The School Trustees. — In each school township 
three school trustees are chosen by the electors to serve for 
three years, one trustee being elected annually on the 
second Saturday in April. 1 The trustees elect one of 
their own number to serve as president, and an elector 
who is neither a school trustee nor director, to serve for 
two years as treasurer, who also acts as clerk of the board. 
The trustees have control of the school fund of the town- 
ship ; 2 if a high school has been created in the township 
they have control of it; they divide the tow T nship into 
suitable and convenient school districts, and they appor- 
tion the school fund among the districts. 

106. School Directors. — Each school district elects three 
school directors, one director being chosen annually on the 

1 When the town and the school township are identical, the trustee is 
elected at the annual town meeting. 

2 Each township has a permanent school fund created by the sale or 
rental of Section 16, donated by the Federal government. The income 
from this fund, together with the township's share of the State school 
fund, is apportioned by the trustees among the districts, according to the 
number of persons under twenty-one years of age. This amount to- 
gether with the money raised by local taxation is used for the main- 
tenance of the schools. 



SCHOOL TRUSTEES, DIRECTORS, ETC. 65 

third Saturday in April. 1 The directors regulate the length 
and occurrence of the school term, the order of studies, 
and the selection of text-books; they employ and dis- 
charge teachers ; they are authorized to levy a tax of not 
more than two per cent, on the assessed value of taxable 
property in the district for general school purposes, and a 
tax of not more than three, per cent, for building pur- 
poses ; they are required to enforce the provisions of the 
compulsory school law. 2 

107. Boards of Education. — In districts having a popu- 
lation of over 1000, the electors chose a board of education 
consisting of six members to serve for three years, and 
three members additional for each additional 10,000 of 
population. In cities having a population of more than 
100,000 the board of education is appointed by the mayor 
with the approval of the city council. The duties and 
powers of boards of education in general are similar to 
those of school trustees and directors, but they are also 
empowered to examine teachers. 

1 In this State, women, when properly qualified, are eligible to vote 
for and to be elected as school officers. 

2 The compulsory school law provides that those persons having 
charge of children between eight and fourteen years of age, must see 
that they attend school not less than sixteen weeks in each year, twelve 
weeks of which must be consecutive ; the penalty for violation of the 
law is a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty dollars. 

5 



66 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 



Cities and Villages. 

108. The City. — Before the adoption of the present 
State constitution in 1870, cities obtained charters for 
their government from the General Assembly. These 
charters designated in what officers the government of 
the city should be vested, the manner of their election, 
and their duties, and defined the powers of the various 
departments of city government. If any city desired its 
powers enlarged or changed in any manner, it was neces- 
sary for it to apply to the legislature to amend its charter. 
These changes were so frequent, and caused such confu- 
sion, that when the present constitution was adopted it 
provided that the legislature should not pass any local or 
special laws for " incorporating cities, towns or villages, or 
changing or amending the charter of any town, village or 
city." l All cities, therefore, that have been chartered since 
1870 have been incorporated under the general law of the 
State, which provides the same form of charter for all 
cities of a certain population. 

Some of the cities which had been incorporated under 
special charters gave them up and reorganized under the 
general law ; a few cities, however, retained their old spe- 
cial charters. The government of a city herein described 
relates to the government under the general law. 

109. The Council. — The legislative department of a 
city is vested in the council. Each city, for convenience, 
is divided into wards. Each ward elects two aldermen to 
serve for two years, one being chosen annually on the 
third Tuesday of April. 2 The aldermen from all the dif- 
ferent wards, together with the mayor of the city, com- 
pose the council. It is the duty of the council to take 

1 See Art. IV. Sect. 22. 

2 If the boundaries of the city and the town are the same, the alder- 
man is elected at the regular town election. 



CITIES AND VILLAGES. 67 

such action and enact such local laws as will promote the 
general welfare of the people of the city. The subjects 
usually considered are the care of the streets, the water 
supply, police regulations, the fire department, lighting 
the streets, granting licenses, the public health, levying the 
taxes, appropriating money for the support of the various 
departments, etc. Appointments made by the mayor are 
subject to the approval of the council. The aldermen are 
paid a salary of not over three dollars for each meeting. 

110. The Mayor is the chief executive officer of the 
city. He is chosen by the electors to serve for two years. 
He presides over the meetings of council, but has no vote 
except when the council is equally divided on a question. 
Once in each year he presents a message to the council 
concerning the condition of the city and recommends such 
measures as he deems necessary and expedient. He ap- 
points certain city officers, subject to the approval of the 
council. All bills passed by the council that he approves 
he signs and they are then laws. Should he disapprove 
of any bill passed by the council, he vetoes it, that is he 
returns it to the council without his approval, in which 
case it must be re-passed by a two-thirds vote before it 
can become a law\ It is the duty of the mayor to see 
that the laws of the city are properly enforced, and he is 
responsible for the good order of the city. 

111. The City Clerk is chosen by the electors to serve 
for two years. He makes a record of the proceedings of 
the council, and performs such other duties as may be 
required of him. He has charge of the seal and of the 
records and documents of the city. 

112. The City Treasurer is chosen by the electors to 
serve for two years. He has the care of the city's money. 

113. Other City Officers. — The council, by a vote of 
two-thirds of the whole number, may provide for a super- 
intendent of streets, an assessor and collector of taxes, and 
a comptroller. These officers are appointed by the mayor 



68 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

subject to the consent of the council. The superintendent 
of streets has charge of the streets and side-walks ; the 
comptroller estimates the amount of money required for 
the expenses of the city, which is to be raised by taxation, 
and supervises the expenses of the city ; the duties of the 
assessor and collector are similar to those in the town and 
county. 

114. City Courts. — When a city has a population of 
5000 or more, city courts may be established, having con- 
current jurisdiction with circuit courts, 1 except in cases of 
murder and treason. A judge and a clerk of the court 
are chosen by the electors to serve for four years. The 
sheriff of the county is the executive officer of the court. 

115. Police Magistrates who hear and decide cases 
arising under the violation of city and village laws, and 
having the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, 2 are chosen 
by the electors to serve for four years. 

116. The City Attorney is chosen by the electors to 
serve for two years. His duties are similar to those of the 
State's attorney in the county. He prosecutes accused 
persons brought before the court for trial; prosecutes or 
defends all law suits in which the city is a party; and 
he is the legal adviser of the council and of the city 
officers in all matters of law connected with their depart- 
ments. In the large cities an officer called the corpora- 
tion counsel is chosen, who is the legal adviser of the 
council and city officers. In such cases the duties of the 
city attorney are usually restricted to criminal matters 
and the duties of the corporation counsel restricted to 
matters of civil law. 

117. The Police Department is appointed by the 
mayor, with the consent of the council. The depart- 
ment consists of the marshal, who is the chief of police, 

1 See If 66, page 43. 2 See ft 95, page 61. 



VILLAGES. 69 

and the policemen. It is their duty to preserve the peace 
and to arrest persons found violating the laws. 1 

Villages. 
118. Village Officers. — The officers of a village are the 
president, six trustees, the village clerk, the treasurer, the 
constable, and the street commissioner. Three trustees 
are chosen annually by the electors to serve for two years. 
The president is chosen annually by the electors. He 
presides over the meetings of the trustees, but has no vote 
except when the vote is equally divided. The clerk is 
chosen annually by the electors. The treasurer, the con- 
stable, one or more street commissioners, and such other 
officers as may be needed, are appointed by the trustees. 
The annual election is held on the third Tuesday in April 
unless the boundaries of the village and the town are the 
same, in which case the election is held on the day of the 
annual town meeting. 

1 The mayor and aldermen in cities and villages are conservators of 
the peace. They may arrest, without a warrant, any person whom they 
may find violating any city ordinance, or any criminal law of the State 



CHAPTER III. 

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS. 

119. Political Parties have existed in this country since 
our national government was first established. Men's views 
naturally differed in regard to political matters. Those 
whose ideas and views were similar associated themselves 
together for the purpose of impressing their views on the 
community at large and for the purpose of electing men 
to office who would administer the government according 
to their views. Originally the efforts of political parties 
were directed mainly to national affairs, but it was not 
long before the people divided in their opinions in matters 
relating to State and local government. It is well for the 
State and the nation that the people form political parties : 
" Errors in the administration of government are less likely 
to occur and are more quickly remedied when one party 
keeps a close watch upon the policy and actions of its 
opponents. 

120. Party Committees. — The interests of political 
parties are in charge of committees. Each prominent 
party has a national, a State, a county, a city and fre- 
quently a town committee. 

121. The Primary or Delegate Election is held for 
the purpose of choosing delegates to a convention to 
nominate candidates for office, Sometimes the candidates 
for local offices are nominated at the primary election. 
At the primary election only those electors are allowed to 
vote who belong to the party in whose interest the primary 
election is held. 

122. Conventions. — Candidates for office are usually 

70 



NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS. 71 

nominated in conventions. Each party holds its own 
conventions, which are composed of the delegates chosen 
at the primary election. 

123. Nominations. — Candidates for town offices are 
nominated either in a convention of delegates, or in a 
caucus or informal meeting of the leading members of the 
party. Candidates for city offices are nominated in city 
conventions ; for county offices, in county conventions ; 
for the General Assembly, in conventions in the senatorial 
districts ; for circuit-court judges, in conventions in the 
judicial district ; l for State offices, in State conventions; 2 
for the national House of Representatives, in conventions 
held in the congressional districts. 3 

124. Nomination Papers. — Candidates for office may 

1 Each district holds its own convention, which is composed of dele- 
gates chosen by the electors. When several counties are united to form 
a judicial, a senatorial, or a congressional district, the delegates from 
each county are usually chosen by a convention held in that county, 
and are frequently instructed to vote for some particular candidate. 

2 The State Convention. — The time and place for the State con- 
vention to meet is named by the State committee, which is composed 
of one member from each county in the State. The convention pre- 
pares an address called the 'platform of the party, which sets forth its 
principles and its policy and what it seeks to accomplish ; it nominates 
candidates for presidental electors, and it elects delegates to the national 
convention. The chairman of the State committee is selected by the 
candidates that the convention nominates. The campaign, which is the 
name given to the time, means and efforts used to elect the candidates, 
is conducted chiefly by the chairman of the State committee, with the 
advice and assistance of the candidates. 

The National Convention.— Forty-eight delegates, a number 
equal to twice the number of the State's representation in both houses 
of Congress, are elected by the State convention to represent the party 
in the national convention which nominates candidates for the office of 
President and of Vice-President of the United States. 

3 Members of the national House of Eepresentatives are chosen by the 
electors in the congressional districts; the electors in each district 
choose the congressman for that district. 



72 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

also be nominated by means of nomination papers. If the 
nomination is for a State office, the papers must be signed 
by at least 1000 qualified electors ; if the nomination is for 
a member of Congress, member of the General Assembly, 
judge of the circuit court, county office, or office in a city 
having a population of over 5000, the papers must be 
signed by not less than one for each fifty persons who 
voted at the last preceding general election, but in no case 
by less than twenty-five electors; for office in a town, 
village, precinct, or ward, or city with a population of less 
than 5000, the papers must be signed by electors number- 
ing at least five per cent, of the total vote at the last elec- 
tion. 

125. Making the Ticket. — The names of all candidates 
nominated either in conventions or by nomination papers 
for State offices, and for offices in divisions of the State 
greater than a county, such as judicial, senatorial, and 
congressional districts, are filed w r ith the secretary of state. 
The names of all candidates nominated for county offices 
are filed with the county clerk. The nominations of all 
candidates for offices in cities, villages, incorporated towns, 
and towns in counties under township organization are 
filed with the clerks of the cities, villages, and towns. The 
secretary of state sends to the clerk of each county a cer- 
tified list of the nominations for State offices and for offices 
in divisions of the State greater than a county ; from which 
list, and from the nominations filed directly in his office, 
the county clerk prepares the official ticket, and provides 
the ballots to be used for State, district and county officers 
and furnishes them to the judges of elections in each voting 
division in the county. 1 



1 In cities, towns, or villages having a board of election commis- 
sioners, the ballots are provided by said board. In towns located in 
counties which have adopted township organization, the ballots for 
town officers are provided by the town clerk. 



NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS. 73 

126. Election Officers. — For cities, villages, and incor- 
porated towns, three election commissioners are appointed 
by the county court. The commissioners divide the city, 
village, or incorporated town into election precincts ; they 
locate the polling-places and provide the ballots, ballot- 
boxes, poll-books, etc. ; and they appoint three judges and 
two clerks in each precinct to conduct the elections. 

In counties under township organization, the supervisor, 
the assessor, and the collector in each town are usually the 
judges of election ; they appoint three clerks to perform 
the clerical work of the election. In counties not under 
township organization, if election judges are not chosen 
by the electors, the county board appoints three judges, 
and the judges appoint three clerks. 

127. The Election. — The general election in this State is 
held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. 
Elections for judges of the supreme court and of the cir- 
cuit courts are held on the first Monday in June, in the 
years in w T hich vacancies occur in these courts. Elections 
for officers in cities, villages, and incorporated towns are 
held on the third Tuesday of April, annually. 

128. Casting- the Ballot. — The room in which the elec- 
tion is held is divided into two parts by a railing. In one 
part of the room are located the election officers with the 
ballot-box ; in the other part are arranged a number of 
closets called voting-booths or stalls. When an elector 
enters the room he gives his name and address to the of- 
ficers ; if his name is found on the assessor's list, he is ad- 
mitted within the railing and handed an official ballot. 
The ballot contains the names of all the candidates of the 
different parties in separate columns ; above each column 
is the name of the party, and to the left of the name of the 
party is a circle. The elector retires to a voting-booth and 
in private prepares his ballot. If he desires to vote what 
is called " a straight ticket " — that is, to vote for every can- 
didate of his political party — he marks a cross (X) within 



74 THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ILLINOIS. 

the circle at the left of the name of the party, which is 
printed above the column containing the names of all the 
candidates of his party. If he desires to vote for but a 
part of the ticket, he makes a cross (X) opposite the names 
of the candidates for whom he wishes to vote, or he may 
write in blank spaces, left for the purpose, the names of 
candidates of his own choice. He folds his ballot so that 
no one can see how he has marked it, and gives it to the 
election officer having charge of the ballot-box, who de- 
posits it in the ballot-box. The object of all this detail 
is to secure secrecy and to prevent fraud in conducting 
the election. 

129. The Officer-Elect. — The candidate receiving the 
largest number of votes is declared elected. 1 He is the 
officer-elect. When the time has expired for which his 
predecessor was elected, and before the successful candi- 
date assumes the duties of the office to which he has 
been elected, the constitution provides that he shall take 
and subscribe to the oath of office, in which he swears or 
affirms that he will support the Constitution of the United 
States, and the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and 
that he will faithfully discharge the duties of the office to 
which he has been elected, to the best of his ability. 2 

1 Plurality and Majority Votes. — When there are more than 
two candidates for the same office, the successful candidate is usually 
elected, not by a majority, but by a plurality vote. A candidate re- 
ceives a plurality vote when he receives more votes than any other 
candidate for the same office ; he receives a majority vote when he re- 
ceives more than half the whole number cast for any office. 

2 Certain inferior officers are not required to take the oath of office. 



CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

STATE OF ILLINOIS. 

Adopted in Convention at Springfield, May 13, a. d. 1870. 

[Eatifiedby the People, July 2, 1870; in force August 8, 1870; 
amended in 1878, 1880, 1884, 1886 and 1890.] 

PEEAMBLE. 

We, the people of the State of Illinois — grateful to Almighty- 
God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so 
long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon 
our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to suc- 
ceeding generations — in order to form a more perfect government, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this constitution for the State of Illinois. 

ARTICLE I. 

BOUNDARIES. 

The boundaries and jurisdiction of the State shall be as follows, 
to w T it : Beginning at the mouth of Wabash River ; thence up the 
same, and with the line of Indiana, to the northwest corner of 
said State ; thence east, with the line of the same State, to the 
middle of Lake Michigan ; thence north along the middle of 
said lake, to north latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes ; 
thence west to the middle of the Mississippi River, and thence 
down along the middle of that river to its confluence with the 
Ohio River, and thence up the latter river along its north-western 
shore, to the place of beginning : Provided, that this State shall 

75 



76 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

exercise such jurisdiction upon the Ohio Kiver as she is now en- 
titled to, or such as may hereafter be agreed upon by this State 
and the State of Kentucky. 

AETICLE II. 

BILL OF RIGHTS. 

Section 1. All men are by nature free and independent, and 
have certain inherent and inalienable rights — among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights 
and the protection of property, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

Sec. 2. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, 
without due process of law. 

Sec. 3. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession 
and worship, without discrimination, shall forever be guaranteed ; 
and no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privi- 
lege or capacity on account of his religious opinions ; but the 
liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to 
dispense with oaths or affirmations, excuse acts of licentiousness, 
or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the 
State. No person shall be required to attend or support any min- 
istry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any prefer- 
ence be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of 
worship. 

Sec. 4. Every person may freely speak, write and publish on 
all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty; and 
in all trials for libel, both civil and criminal, the truth, when pub- 
lished with good motives and for justifiable ends, shall be a suffi- 
cient defense. 

Sec. 5. The right of trial by jury as heretofore enjoyed, shall 
remain inviolate; but the trial of civil cases before justices of the 
peace, by a jury of less than twelve men, may be authorized by 
law. 

Sec. 6. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiz- 
ures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue without 
probable cause, supported by affidavit, particularly describing the 
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

Sec. 7. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 77 

except for capital offenses, where the proof is evident or the pre- 
sumption great ; and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or inva- 
sion the public safety may require it. 

Sec. 8. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal 
offense, unless on indictment of a grand jury, except in cases in 
which the punishment is by fine, or imprisonment otherwise than 
in the penitentiary, in cases of impeachment, and in cases arising 
in the army and navy, or in the militia when in actual service in 
time of war or public danger : Provided, that the grand jury may 
be abolished by law in all cases. 

Sec. 9. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the 
right to appear and defend in person and by counsel ; to demand 
the nature and cause of the accusation, and to have a copy 
thereof; to meet the witnesses face to face, and to have process 
to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, and a speedy 
public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which 
the offense is alleged to have been committed. 

Sec. 10. No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to 
give evidence against himself, or be twice put in jeopardy for the 
same offense. 

Sec. 11. All penalties shall be proportioned to the nature of 
the offense ; and no conviction shall work corruption of blood or 
forfeiture of estate; nor shall any person be transported out of 
the State for any offense committed within the same. 

Sec. 12. No person shall be imprisoned for debt, unless upon 
refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors, in 
such manner as shall be prescribed by law; or in cases where 
there is strong presumption of fraud. 

Sec. 13. Private property shall not betaken or damaged for 
public use without just compensation. Such compensation, when 
not made by the State, shall be ascertained by a jury, as shall be 
prescribed by law. The fee of land taken for railroad tracks, 
without consent of the owners thereof, shall remain in such 
owners, subject to the use for which it is taken. 

Sec. 14. No ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts, or making any irrevocable grant of special privi- 
leges or immunities, shall be passed. 

Sec. 15. The military shall be in strict subordination to the 
civil power. 



78 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

Sec. 16. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
any house, without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war 
except in the manner prescribed by law. 

Sec. 17. The people have the right to assemble in a peaceable 
manner to consult for the common good, to make known their 
opinions to their representatives, and to apply for redress of 
grievances. 

Sec. 18. All elections shall be free and equal. 

Sec. 19. Every person ought to find a certain remedy in the 
laws for all injuries and wrongs which he may receive in his per- 
son, property or reputation ; he ought to obtain, by law, right and 
justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it, completely 
and without denial, promptly and without delay. 

Sec. 20. A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles 
of civil government is absolutely necessary to preserve the bless- 
ings of liberty. 

AETICLE III. 

DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. 

The powers of the government of this State are divided into 
three distinct departmeuts — the Legislative, Executive, and Judi- 
cial ; and no person, or collection of persons, being one of these 
departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to 
either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or 
permitted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

LEGISLATIVE department. 

Section 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a general 
assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives, both to be elected by the people. 

election. 

Sec. 2. An election for members of the General Assembly shall 
be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, 
and every two years thereafter, in each county, at such places 
therein as may be provided by law. When vacancies occur in 
either house, the governor, or person exercising the power of gov- 
ernor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancy. 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 79 

ELIGIBILITY AND OATH. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have at- 
tained the age of twenty-five years, or a representative who shall 
not have attained the age of twenty-one years. No person shall 
be a senator or representative who shall not be a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not have been for five years a resi- 
dent of this State, and for two years next preceding his election a 
resident within the territory forming the district from which he 
is elected. No judge or clerk of any court, secretary of state, 
attorney-general, State's attorney, recorder, sheriff, or collector of 
public revenue, member of either house of Congress, or person 
holding any lucrative office under the United States or this State, 
or any foreign government, shall have a seat in the General As- 
sembly : Provided, that appointments in the militia, and the offices 
of notary public and justice of the peace, shall not be considered 
lucrative. Nor shall any person holding any office of honor or 
profit under any foreign government, or under the government of 
the United States (except postmasters whose annual compensation 
does not exceed the sum of three hundred dollars), hold any office 
of honor or profit under the authority of this State. 

Sec. 4. No person who has been, or hereafter shall be convicted 
of bribery, perjury or other infamous crime, nor any person who 
has been or may be a collector or holder of public moneys, who 
shall not have accounted for and paid over, according to law, all 
such moneys due from him, shall be eligible to the General As- 
sembly, or to any office of profit or trust in this State. 

Sec. 5. Members of the General Assembly, before they enter 
upon their official duties, shall take and subscribe the following 
oath or affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of 
the United States and the constitution of the State of Illinois, and will 
faithfully discharge the duties of senator (or representative) according to 
the best of my ability ; and that I have not knowingly or intentionally 
paid or contributed anything, or made any promise in the nature of a 
bribe, to directly or indirectly influence any vote at the election at which 
I was chosen to fill the said office, and have not accepted, nor will I accept 
or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing from 
any corporation, company or person, for any vote or influence I may give 
or withhold on any bill, resolution or appropriation, or for any other offi- 
cial act." 



80 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

This oath shall be administered by a judge of the supreme or 
circuit court in the hall of the house to which the member is 
elected, and the secretary of state shall record and file the oath 
subscribed by each member. Any member who shall refuse to 
take the oath herein prescribed shall forfeit his office, and every 
member who shall be convicted of having sworn falsely to, or of 
violating his said oath, shall forfeit his office and be disqualified 
thereafter from holding any office of profit or trust in this State. 

APPORTIONMENT — SENATORIAL. 

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall apportion the State every 
ten years, beginning with the year one thousand eight hundred 
and seventy-one, by dividing the population of the State, as ascer- 
tained by the Federal census, by the number fifty-one, and the 
quotient shall be the ratio of representation in the senate. The 
State shall be divided into fifty-one senatorial districts, each of 
which shall elect one senator, whose term of office shall be 
four years. The senators elected in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in districts bearing odd 
numbers, shall vacate their offices at the end of two years, and 
those elected in districts bearing even numbers, at the end of four 
years ; and vacancies occurring by the expiration of term shall 
be filled by the election of senators for the full term. Senatorial 
districts shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory, 
bounded by county lines, and contain as nearly as practicable an 
equal number of inhabitants ; but no district shall contain less 
than four-fifths of the senatorial ratio. Counties containing not 
less than the ratio and three-fourths, may be divided into separate 
districts, and shall be entitled to two senators, and to one addi- 
tional senator for each number of inhabitants equal to the ratio 
contained by such counties in excess of twice the number of said 
ratio. 

MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 
Note. — By the adoption of minority representation, the original sec- 
tions 7 and 8 of this article became void and ceased to be a part of the 
constitution. Under section 12 of the schedule and the vote of adoption, 
the sections 7 and 8 following, relating to minority representation take 
the place of the original sections 7 and 8. 

Secs. 7 and 8. The house of representatives shall consist of 
three times the number of the members of the senate, and the 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 81 

term of office shall be two years. Three representatives shall be 
elected in each senatorial district at the general election in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, 
and every two years thereafter. In all elections of representatives 
aforesaid, each qualified voter may cast as many votes for one can- 
didate as there are representatives to be elected, or may distribute 
the same, or equal parts thereof, among the candidates, as he shall 
see fit; and the candidates highest in votes shall be declared 
elected. 

TIME OF MEETING AND GENERAI, RULES. 

Sec. 9. The sessions of the General Assembly shall commence 
at twelve o'clock noon, on the Wednesday next after the first 
Monday in January, in the year next ensuing the election of 
members thereof, and at no other time, unless as provided by this 
constitution. A majority of the members elected to each house 
shall constitute a quorum. Each house shall determine the rules 
of its proceedings, and be the judge of the election returns, and 
qualifications of its members ; shall choose its own officers ; and 
the senate shall choose a temporary president to preside when the 
lieutenant-governor shall not attend as president, or shall act as 
governor. The secretary of state shall call the House of Repre- 
sentatives to order at the opening of each new assembly, and pre- 
side over it until a temporary presiding officer thereof shall have 
been chosen and shall have taken his seat. No member shall be 
expelled by either house, except by a vote of two-thirds of all the 
members elected to that house, and no member shall be twice ex- 
pelled for the same offense. Each house may punish by impris- 
onment any person, not a member, who shall be guilty of disre- 
spect to the house by disorderly or contemptuous behavior in its 
presence. But no such imprisonment shall extend beyond twenty- 
four hours at one time, unless the person shall persist in such dis- 
orderly or contemptuous behavior. 

Sec. 10. The door of each house and of committees of the 
whole shall be kept open, except in such cases as, in the opinion 
of the house, require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, or to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 
Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall 
be published. In the senate, at the request of two members, and 
6 



82 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

in the house at the request of five members, the yeas and nays 
shall be taken on any question, and entered upon the journal. 
Any two members of either house shall have liberty to dissent 
from and protest, in respectful language, against any act or reso- 
lution which they think injurious to the public or to any indi- 
vidual, and have the reasons of their dissent entered upon the 
journals. 

STYLE OF LAWS AND PASSAGE OF BILLS. 

Sec. 11. The style of the laws of this State shall be : " Be it 
enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the Gen- 
eral Assembly." 

Sec. 12. Bills may originate in either house, but may be altered, 
amended or rejected by the other; and on the final passage of all 
bills, the vote shall be by yeas and nays, upon each bill separately, 
and shall be entered upon the journal ; and no bill shall become 
a law without the concurrence of a majority of the members 
elected to each house. 

Sec. 13. Every bill shall be read at large on three different 
days, in each house; and the bill and all amendments thereto 
shall be printed before the vote is taken on its final passage ; and 
every bill, having passed both bouses, shall be signed by the 
speakers thereof. No act hereafter passed shall embrace more 
than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. But if 
any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be ex- 
pressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much 
thereof as shall not be so expressed ; and no law shall be revived 
or amended by reference to its title only, but the law revived, or 
the section amended, shall be inserted at length in the new act. 
And no act of the General Assembly shall take effect until the 
first day of July next after its passage, unless, in case of emer- 
gency (which emergency shall be expressed in the preamble or 
body of the act) the General Assembly shall, by a vote of two- 
thirds of all the members elected to each house, otherwise direct. 

privileges and disabilities. 
Sec. 14. Senators and representatives shall, in all cases, except 
treason, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest 
during the session of the General Assembly, and in going to and 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either 
house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 83 

Sec. 15. No person elected to the General Assembly shall re- 
ceive any civil appointment within this State from the governor, 
the governor and senate, or from the General Assembly, during 
the term for which he shall have been elected ; and all such ap- 
pointments, and all votes given for any such members for any such 
office or appointment, shall be void ; nor shall any member of the 
General Assembly be interested, either directly or indirectly, in 
any contract with the State, or any county thereof, authorized by 
any law passed during the term for which he shall have been 
elected, or within one year after the expiration thereof. 

PUBLIC MONEYS AND APPROPRIATIONS. 

Sec. 16. The General Assembly shall make no appropriation 
of money out of the treasury in any private law. Bills making 
appropriations for the pay of members and officers of the General 
Assembly, and for the salaries of the officers of the government, 
shall contain no provision on any other subject. 

Sec. 17. No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in 
pursuance of an appropriation made by law, and on the presenta- 
tion of a warrant issued by the auditor thereon ; and no money 
shall be diverted from any appropriation made for any purpose, 
or taken from any fund whatever, either by joint or separate reso- 
lution. The auditor shall, within sixty days after the adjourn- 
ment of each session of the General Assembly, prepare and pub- 
lish a full statement of all money expended at such session, speci- 
fying the amount of each item, and to whom and for what paid. 

Sec. 18. Each General Assembly shall provide for all the ap- 
propriations necessary for the ordinary and contingent expenses 
of the government until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter 
after the adjournment of the next regular session, the aggregate 
amount of which shall not be increased without a vote of two- 
thirds of the members elected to each house, nor exceed the 
amount of revenue authorized by law to be raised in such time ; 
and all appropriations, general or special, requiring money to be 
paid out of the State treasury, from funds belonging to the State, 
shall end with such fiscal quarter : Provided, the State may, to 
meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, contract debts, never 
to exceed in the aggregate two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; 
and moneys thus borrowed shall be applied to the purpose for 
which they were obtained, or to pay the debt thus created, and to 



84 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

no other purpose ; and no other debt, except for the purpose of 
repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the 
State in war (for payment of which the faith of the State shall be 
pledged), shall be contracted, unless the law authorizing the same 
shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people and 
have received a majority of the votes cast for members of the 
General Assembly at such election. The General Assembly shall 
provide for the publication of said law for three months, at least, 
before the vote of the people shall be taken upon the same ; and 
provision shall be made, at the time, for the payment of the inter- 
est annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose, or 
from other sources of revenue ; which law, providing for the pay- 
ment of such interest by such tax, shall be irrepealable until such 
debt be paid. And provided further, that the law levying the tax 
shall be submitted to the people with the law authorizing the debt 
to be contracted. 

Sec. 19. The General Assembly shall never grant or authorize 
extra compensation, fee or allowance to any public officer, agent, 
servant or contractor, after service has been rendered or a contract 
made, nor authorize the payment of any claim, or part thereof, 
hereafter created against the State under any agreement or con- 
tract made without express authority of law ; and all such unau- 
thorized agreements or contracts shall be null and void : Provided, 
the General Assembly may make appropriations for expenditures 
incurred in suppressing insurrection or repelling invasion. 

Sec. 20. The State shall never pay, assume or become responsi- 
ble for the debts or liabilities of, or in any manner give, loan or 
extend its credit to, or in aid of any public or other corporation, 
association or individual. 

PAY OF MEMBERS. 

Sec. 21. The members of the General Assembly shall receive 
for their services the sum of five dollars per day, during the first 
session held under this constitution, and ten cents for each mile 
necessarily travelled in going to and returning from the seat of 
government, to be computed by the auditor of public accounts ; 
and thereafter such compensation as shall be prescribed by law, 
and no other allowance or emolument, directly or indirectly, for 
any purpose whatever, except the sum of fifty dollars per session 
to each member, which shall be in full for postage, stationery, 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 85 

newspapers, and all other incidental expenses and perquisites ; 
but no change shall be made in the compensation of the General 
Assembly during the term for which they may have been elected. 
The pay and mileage allowed to each member of the General 
Assembly shall be certified by the speakers of their respective 
houses, and entered on the journals, and published at the close of 
each session. 

SPECIAL LEGISLATION PROHIBITED. 

Sec. 22. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special 
laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say, for — 

Granting divorces ; 

Changing the names of persons or places ; 

Laying out, opening, altering, and working roads or highways ; 

Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public grounds ; 

Locating or changing county seats ; 

Kegulating county and township affairs ; 

Regulating the practice in courts of justice ; 

Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace, 
police magistrates, and constables ; 

Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases ; 

Incorporating cities, towns, or villages, or changing or amend- 
ing the charter of any town, city, or village ; 

Providing for the election of members of the board of super- 
visors in townships, incorporated towns or cities; 

Summoning and impaneling grand or petit juries ; 

Providing for the management of common schools ; 

Regulating the rate of interest on money ; 

The opening and conducting of an election, or designating the 
place of voting ; 

The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or 
others under disability ; 

The protection of game or fish ; 

Chartering or licensing ferries or toll bridges ; 

Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures ; 

Creating, increasing, or decreasing fees, percentages or allow- 
ances of public officers, during the term for which said officers 
are elected or appointed ; 

Changing the law of descent ; 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right 



86 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

to lay down railroad tracks, or amending existing charters for 
such purpose. 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual any spe- 
cial or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. 

In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, 
no special law shall be enacted. 

Sec. 23. The General Assembly shall have no power to release 
or extinguish, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability, or 
obligation of any corporation or individual to this State or to any 
municipal corporation therein. 

IMPEACHMENT. 

Sec. 24. The House of Representatives shall have the sole 
power of impeachment ; but a majority of all the members elected 
must concur therein. All impeachments shall be tried by the 
senate ; and when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be 
upon oath or affirmation, to do justice according to law and evi- 
dence. When the governor of the State is tried, the chief-justice 
shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concur- 
rence of two-thirds of the senators elected. But judgment in 
such cases shall not extend further than removal from office, and 
disqualification to hold any office of honor, profit or trust under 
the government of this State. The party, whether convicted or 
acquitted, shall, nevertheless, be liable to prosecution, trial, judg- 
ment and punishment according to law. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Sec. 2d. The General Assembly shall provide, by law, that the 
fuel, stationery, and printing paper furnished for the use of the 
State ; the copying, printing, binding and distributing the laws 
and journals, and all other printing ordered by the General As- 
sembly, shall be let by contract to the lowest responsible bidder ; 
but the General Assembly shall fix a maximum price ; and no 
member thereof, or other officer of the State, shall be interested, 
directly or indirectly, in such contract. But all such contracts 
shall be subject to the approval of the governor, and if he disap- 
proves the same, there shall be a re-letting of the contract, in such 
manner as shall be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 26. The State of Illinois shall never be made defendant 
in any court of law or equity. 

Sec. 27. The General Assembly shall have no power to author- 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 87 

ize lotteries or gift enterprises, for any purpose, and shall pass laws 
to prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets in this 
State. 

Sec. 28. No law shall be passed which shall operate to extend 
the term of any public officer after his election or appointment. 

Sec. 29. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass 
such laws as may be necessary for the protection of operative 
miners, by providing for ventilation, when the same may be re- 
quired, and the construction of escapement shafts, or such other 
appliances as may secure safety in all coal mines, to provide for 
the enforcement of said laws by such penalties and punishments 
as may be deemed proper. 

Sec. 30. The General Assembly may provide for establishing 
and opening roads and cartways, connected with a public road, 
for private and public use. 

Sec. 31. The General Assembly may pass laws permitting 
S the ow T ners of land to construct drains, ditches and levees for 

oo 

*"■ agricultural, sanitary or mining purposes, across the lands of 
•S others, and provide for the organization of drainage districts, 
"2 and vest the corporate authorities thereof with power to con- 
g struct and maintain levees, drains and ditches, and to keep in 
| repair all drains, ditches and levees heretofore constructed 
oj under the laws of this State, by special assessments upon the 
property benefitted thereby. 

Sec. 32. The General Assembly shall pass liberal homestead 
and exemption laws. 

Sec. 33. The General Assembly shall not appropriate out of 
the State treasury, or expend on account of the new capitol 
grounds, and construction, completion and furnishing of the 
State house, a sum exceeding in the aggregate three and a half 
millions of dollars, inclusive of all appropriations heretofore made, 
without first submitting the proposition for an additional expendi- 
ture to the legal voters of the State, at a general election ; nor 
unless a majority of all votes cast at such election shall be for the 
proposed additional expenditure. 

ARTICLE V. 
executive department. 
Section 1. The executive department shall consist of a gov- 
ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public 



88 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

accounts, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, and 
attorney-general, who shall each, with the exception of treasurer, 
hold his office for the term of four years from the second Monday 
of January next after his election and until his successor is elected 
and qualified. They shall, except the lieutenant-governor, reside 
at the seat of government during the term of office, and keep the 
public records, books and papers there, and shall perform such 
duties as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 2. The treasurer shall hold his office for the term of two 
years, and until his successor is elected and qualified ; and shall 
be ineligible to said office for two years next after the end of the 
term for which he was elected. He may be required by the gov- 
ernor to give reasonable additional security, and in default of so 
doing his office shall be deemed vacant. 



ELECTION. 

Sec. 3. An election for governor, lieutenant-governor, secre- 
tary of state, auditor of public accounts, and attorney-general 
shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of No- 
vember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
seventy -two, and every four years thereafter ; for superintendent 
of public instruction, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday 
of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sev- 
enty, and every four years thereafter; and for treasurer on the 
day last above mentioned, and every two years thereafter; at 
such places and in such manner as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 4. The returns of every election for the above-named 
officers shall be sealed up and transmitted, by the returning of- 
ficers, to the secretary of state, directed to " The Speaker of the 
House of Kepresentatives," who shall, immediately after the or- 
ganization of the house, and before proceeding to other business, 
open and publish the same in the presence of a majority of each 
house of the General Assembly, who shall for that purpose as- 
semble in the hall of the House of Kepresentatives. The person 
having the highest number of votes for either of said offices, shall 
be declared duly elected ; but if two or more have an equal, and 
the highest number of votes, the General Assembly shall, by joint 
ballot, choose one of such persons for said office. Contested elec- 
tions for all of said offices shall be determined by both houses of 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 89 

the General Assembly, by joint ballot, in such manner as may be 
prescribed by law. 

ELIGIBILITY. 

Sec. 5. ISo person shall be eligible to the office of governor or 
lieutenant-governor who shall not have attained the age of thirty 
years, and been for five years next preceding his election a citi- 
zen of the United States and of this State. Neither the governor, 
lieutenant-governor, auditor of public accounts, secretary of state, 
superintendent of public instruction, nor attorney-general shall be 
eligible to any other office during the period for which he shall 
have been elected. 

GOVERNOR. 

Sec. 6. The supreme executive power shall be vested in the 
governor, who shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- 
cuted. 

Sec. 7. The governor shall, at the commencement of each ses- 
sion, and at the close of his term of office, give to the General 
Assembly information, by message, of the condition of the State, 
and shall recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient. 
He shall account to the General Assembly, and accompany his 
message with a statement of all moneys received and paid out by 
him from any funds subject to his order, with vouchers, and, at 
the commencement of each regular session, present estimates of 
the amount of money required to be raised by taxation for all 
purposes. 

Sec. 8. The governor may, on extraordinary occasions, con- 
vene the General Assembly, by proclamation, stating therein the 
purpose for which they are convened; and the General Assembly 
shall enter upon no business except that for which they were 
called together. 

Sec. 9. In case of a disagreement between the two houses with 
respect to the time of adjournment, the governor may, on the 
same being certified to him by the house first moving the adjourn- 
ment, adjourn the General Assembly to such time as he thinks 
proper, not beyond the first day of the next regular session. 

Sec. 10. The governor shall nominate and, by and with the 
advice and consent of the senate (a majority of all the senators 
elected concurring by yeas and nays), appoint all officers whose 
offices are established by this constitution, or which may be 



90 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

created by law, and whose appointment or election is not other- 
wise provided for ; and no such officer shall be appointed or 
elected by the General Assembly. 

Sec. 11. In case of vacancy, during the recess of the senate, in 
any office which is not elective, the governor shall make a tempo- 
rary appointment until the next meeting of the senate, when he 
shall nominate some person to fill such office ; and any person so 
nominated, who is confirmed by the senate (a majority of all the 
senators elected concurring by yeas and nays), shall hold his 
office during the remainder of the term, and until his successor 
shall be appointed and qualified. No person, after being rejected 
by the senate, shall be again nominated for the same office at the 
same session, unless at the request of the senate, or be appointed 
to the same office during the recess of the General Assembly. 

Sec. 12. The governor shall have power to remove any officer 
whom he may appoint, in case of incompetency, neglect of duty, 
or malfeasance in office ; and he may declare his office vacant and 
fill the same as is herein provided in other cases of vacancy. 

Sec. 13. The governor shall have power to grant reprieves, 
commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses, 
subject to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to 
the manner of applying therefor. 

Sec. 14. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the 
military and naval forces of the State (except when they shall be 
called into the service of the United States) ; and may call out 
the same to execute the laws, suppress insurrection, and repel 
invasion. 

Sec. 15. The governor, and all civil officers of this State, shall 
be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office. 

veto power of the governor. 
Sec. 16. Every bill passed by the General Assembly shall, 
«; before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor. If he 
2 approve, he shall sign it, and thereupon it shall become a law ; 
g but if he do not approve, he shall return it, with his objec- 
ts tions, to the house in which it shall have originated, which 
"g house shall enter the objections at large upon its journal and 
| proceed to reconsider the bill. If then two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected agree to pass the same, it shall be sent, together 
with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall like- 



ns 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 91 

wise be reconsidered ; and if approved by two-thirds of the mem- 
bers elected to that house, shall become a law, notwithstanding 
the objections of the governor; but in all such cases the vote of 
each house shall be determined by yeas and nays, to be entered 
upon the journal. Bills making appropriations of money out of 
the treasury shall specify the objects and purposes for which the 
same are made, and appropriate to them respectively their several 
amounts in distinct items and sections. And if the governor shall 
not approve any one or more of the items or sections contained in 
any bill, but shall approve the residue thereof, it shall become a 
law as to the residue in like manner as if he had signed it. The 
governor shall then return the bill, with his objections to the items 
or sections of the same not approved by him, to the house in 
which the bill shall have originated, which house shall enter the 
objections at large upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider so 
much of said bill as is not approved by the governor. The same 
proceedings shall be had in both houses in reconsidering the same 
as is hereinbefore provided in case of an entire bill returned by 
the governor with his objections; and if any item or section of 
said bill not approved by the governor shall be passed by two- 
thirds of the members elected to each of the two houses of the 
General Assembly, it shall become part of said law, notwithstand- 
ing the objections of the governor. Any bill which shall not be 
returned by the governor within ten days (Sundays excepted) 
after it shall have been presented to him, shall become a law in 
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the General Assembly 
shall by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it 
shall be filed with his objections in* the office of the secretary of 
state, within ten days after such adjournment, or become a law. 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 

Sec. 17. In case of the death, conviction or impeachment, 
failure to qualify, resignation, absence from the State, or other 
disability of the governor, the powers, duties and emoluments of 
the office for the residue of the term, or until the disability shall 
be removed, shall devolve upon the lieutenant-governor. 

Sec. 18. The lieutenant-governor shall be president of the 
senate, and shall vote only when the senate is equally divided. 
The senate shall choose a president pro tempore, to preside in case 



92 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

of the absence or impeachment of the lieutenant-governor, or 
when he shall hold the office of governor. 

Sec. 19. If there be no lieutenant-governor, or if the lieuten- 
ant-governor shall, for any of the causes specified in section 
seventeen of this article, become incapable of performing the 
duties of the office, the president of the senate shall act as gov- 
ernor until the vacancy is filled or the disability removed ; and if 
the president of the senate, for any of the above-named causes, 
become incapable of performing the duties of governor, the same 
shall devolve upon the speaker of the House of Representatives. 

OTHER STATE OFFICERS. 

Sec. 20. If the office of auditor of public accounts, treasurer, 
secretary of state, attorney-general, or superintendent of public 
instruction shall be vacated by death, resignation or otherwise, it 
shall be the duty of the governor to fill the same by appointment, 
and the appointee shall hold his office until his successor shall be 
elected and qualified in such manner as may be provided by law. 
An account shall be kept by the officers of the executive depart- 
ment, and of all the public institutions of the State, of all moneys 
received or disbursed by them, severally, from all sources, and for 
every service performed, and a semi-annual report thereof be 
made to the governor, under oath ; and any officer who makes a 
false report shall be guilty of perjury, and be punished accord- 
ingly. 

Sec. 21. The officers of the executive department, and of all 
the public institutions of the State, shall, at least ten days pre- 
ceding each regular session of the General Assembly, severally 
report to the governor, who shall transmit such reports to the Gen- 
eral Assembly, together with the reports of the judges of the 
supreme court of defects in the constitution and laws ; and the 
governor may at any time require information, in writing, under 
oath, from the officers of the executive department, and all officers 
and managers of State institutions, upon any subject relating to 
the condition, management and expenses of their respective 
offices. 

THE SEAL OF STATE. 

Sec. 22. There shall be a seal of the State, which shall be 
called the " Great Seal of the State of Illinois," which shall be 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 93 

kept by the secretary of state, and used by him, officially, as 
directed by law. 

FEES AND SALARIES. 

I Sec. 23. The officers named in this article shall receive for 
their services a salary, to be established by law, which shall not 
be increased or diminished during their official terms, and they shall 
not, after the expiration of the terms of those in office at the adop- 
tion of this constitution, receive to their own use any fees, costs, 
perquisites of office, or other compensation. And all fees that 
may hereafter be payable by law for any services performed by 
any officer provided for in this article of the constitution, shall be 
paid in advance into the State treasury. 

DEFINITION AND OATH OF OFFICE. 

Sec. 24. An office is a public position created by the constitu- 
tion or law, continuing during the pleasure of the appointing 
power, or for a fixed time, with a successor elected or appointed. 
An employment is an agency, for a temporary purpose, which 
ceases when that purpose is accomplished. 

Sec. 25. All civil officers except members of the General 
Assembly and such inferior officers as may be by law exempted, 
shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, 
take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will sup- 
port the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the 
State of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the 
office of according to the best of my ability." 

And no other oath, declaration or test shall be required as a 
qualification. 

ARTICLE VI. 

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

Section 1. The judicial powers, except as in this article is 
otherwise provided, shall be vested in one supreme court, circuit 
courts, county courts, justices of the peace, police magistrates, 
and in such courts as may be created by law in and for cities and 
incorporated towns. 



94 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 



SUPREME COURT. 

Sec. 2. The supreme court shall consist of seven judges, and 
shall have original jurisdiction in cases relating to the revenue in 
mandamus and habeas corpus, and appellate jurisdiction in all 
other cases. One of said judges shall be chief-justice ; four shall 
constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of four shall be neces- 
sary to every decision. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of the 
supreme court unless he shall be at least thirty years of age, and 
a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have resided in 
this State five years next preceding his election, and be a resident 
of the district in which he shall be elected. 

Sec. 4. Terms of the supreme court shall continue to be held 
in the present grand divisions at the several places now provided 
for holding the same ; and until otherwise provided by law, one 
or more terms of said court shall be held, for the northern divi- 
sion, in the city of Chicago each year, at such times as said court 
may appoint, whenever said city or the county of Cook shall 
provide appropriate rooms therefor, and the use of a suitable 
library, without expense to the State. The judicial divisions may 
be altered, increased or diminished in number, and the times and 
places of holding said court may be changed by law. 

Sec. 5. The present grand divisions shall be preserved, and be 
denominated Southern, Central and Northern, until . otherwise 
provided by law. The State shall be divided into seven districts 
for the election of judges, and until otherwise provided by law, 
they shall be as follows : 

First District. — The counties of St. Clair, Clinton, Washington, 
Jefferson, Wayne, Edwards, Wabash, White, Hamilton, Frank- 
lin, Perry, Eandolph, Monroe, Jackson, Williamson, Saline, Gal- 
latin, Hardin, Pope, Union, Johnson, Alexander, Pulaski and 
Massac. 

Second District, — The counties of Madison, Bond, Marion, Clay, 
Kichland, Lawrence, Crawford, Jasper, Effingham, Fayette, Mont- 
gomery, Macoupin, Shelby, Cumberland, Clark, Greene, Jersey, 
Calhoun and Christian. 

Third District. — The counties of Sangamon, Macon, Logan, De 
Witt, Piatt, Douglas, Champaign, Vermillion, McLean, Living- 
ston, Ford, Iroquois, Coles, Edgar, Moultrie and Tazewell. 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 95 

Fourth District — The counties of Fulton, McDonough, Han- 
cock, Schuyler, Brown, Adams, Pike, Mason, Menard, Morgan, 
Cass and Scott. 

Fifth District. — The counties of Knox, Warren, Henderson, 
Mercer, Henry, Stark, Peoria, Marshall, Putnam, Bureau, LaSalle, 
Grundy and Woodford. 

Sixth District. — The counties of Whiteside, Carroll, Jo Daviess, 
Stephenson, Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, De- 
Kalb, Lee, Ogle and Kock Island. 

Seventh District. — The counties of Lake, Cook, Will, Kankakee 
and DuPage. 

The boundaries of the districts may be changed at the session 
of the General Assembly next preceding the election for judges 
therein, and at no other time ; but whenever such alterations shall 
be made, the same shall be upon the rule of equality of popula- 
tion, as nearly as county boundaries will allow, and the districts 
shall be composed of contiguous counties, in as nearly compact 
form as circumstances will permit. The alteration of the districts 
shall not affect the tenure of office of any judge. 

Sec. 6. At the time of voting on the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, one judge of the supreme court shall be elected by the elec- 
tors thereof, in each of said districts numbered two, three, six and 
seven, who shall hold his office for the term of nine years from 
the first Monday of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy. The term of office of judges of the 
supreme court, elected after the adoption of this constitution, shall 
be nine years ; and on the first Monday of June of the year in 
which the term of any of the judges in the office at the adoption 
of this constitution, or of the judges then elected, shall expire, 
and every nine years thereafter, there shall be an election for the 
successor or successors of such judges, in the respective districts 
wherein the term of such judges shall expire. The chief-justice 
shall continue to act as such until the expiration of the term for 
which he was elected, after which the judges shall choose one of 
their number chief-justice. 

Sec. 7. From and after the adoption of this constitution, the 
judges of the supreme court shall each receive a salary of four 
thousand dollars per annum, payable quarterly, until otherwise 
provided by law. And after said salaries shall be fixed by law, 
the salaries of the judges in office shall not be increased or dimin- 



96 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

ished during the term for which said judges shall have been 
elected. 

Sec. 8. Appeals and writs of error may be taken to the supreme 
court, held in the grand division in which the case is decided, or, 
by consent of the parties, to any other grand division. 

Sec. 9. The supreme court shall appoint one reporter of its 
decisions, who shall hold his office for six years, subject to removal 
by the court. 

Sec. 10. At the time of the election for representatives in the 
General Assembly, happening next preceding the expiration of 
the terms of office of the present clerks of said court, one clerk of 
said court for each division shall be elected, whose term of office 
shall be six years from said election, but who shall not enter upon 
the duties of his office until the expiration of the term of his 
predecessor, and every six years thereafter one clerk of said court 
for each division shall be elected. 

APPELLATE COURTS. 

Sec. 11. After the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and seventy-four, inferior appellate courts, of uniform or- 
ganization and jurisdiction, may be created in districts formed for 
that purpose, to which such appeals and writs of error as the 
General Assembly may provide, may be prosecuted from circuit 
or other courts, and from which appeals and writs of error shall 
lie to the supreme court, in all criminal cases, and cases in which 
a franchise, or freehold, or the validity of a statute is involved, 
and in such other cases as may be provided by law. Such appel- 
late courts shall be held by such number of judges of the circuit 
courts, and at such times and places, and in such manner as may 
be provided by law ; but no judge shall sit in review upon cases 
decided by him ; nor shall said judges receive any additional com- 
pensation for such services. 

CIRCUIT COURTS. 

Sec. 12. The circuit courts shall have original jurisdiction of 
all causes in law and equity, and such appellate jurisdiction as is 
or may be provided by law, and shall hold two or more terms 
each year in every county. The terms of office of judges of cir- 
cuit courts shall be six years. 

Sec. 13. The State, exclusive of the county of Cook and other 






CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 97 

counties having a population of one hundred thousand, shall be 
divided into judicial circuits, prior to the expiration of the terms 
of office of the present judges of the circuit courts. Such cir- 
cuits shall be formed of contiguous counties, in as nearly compact 
form and as nearly equal as circumstances will permit, having due 
regard to business, territory and population, and shall not exceed 
in number one circuit for every one hundred thousand of popula- 
tion in the State. One judge shall be elected for each of said 
circuits by the electors thereof. New circuits may be formed and 
the boundaries of circuits changed by the General Assembly, at 
its session next preceding the election for circuit judges, but at 
no other time : Provided, that the circuits may be equalized or 
changed at the first session of the General Assembly after the 
adoption of this constitution. The creation, alteration or change 
of any circuit shall not affect the tenure of office of any judge. 
Whenever the business of the circuit court of any one, or of two 
or more contiguous counties, containing a population exceeding 
fifty thousand, shall occupy nine months of the year, the General 
Assembly may make of such county, or counties, a separate cir- 
cuit. Whenever additional circuits are created, the foregoing 
limitations shall be observed. 

Sec. 14. The General Assembly shall provide for the times of 
holding court in each county ; which shall not be changed, except 
by the General Assembly next preceding the general election for 
judges of said courts ; but additional terms may be provided for 
in any county. The election for judges of the circuit courts shall 
be held on the first Monday in June, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, and every six years 
thereafter. 

Sec. 15. The General Assembly may divide the State into judi- 
cial circuits of greater population and territory, in lieu of the cir- 
cuits provided for in section thirteen of this article, and provide 
for the election therein, severally, by the electors thereof, by gen- 
eral ticket, of not exceeding four judges, who shall hold the cir- 
cuit courts in the circuit for which they shall be elected, in such 
manner as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 16. From and after the adoption of this constitution, 
judges of the circuit courts shall receive a salary of three thou- 
sand dollars per annum, payable quarterly, until otherwise pro- 
vided by law. And after their salaries shall be fixed by law, they 
7 



98 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

shall not be increased or diminished during the terms for which 
said judges shall be respectively elected ; and from and after the 
adoption of this constitution, no judge of the supreme or circuit 
court shall receive any other compensation, perquisite or benefit, 
in any form whatsoever, nor perform any other than judicial 
duties to which may belong any emoluments. 

Sec. 17. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of 
the circuit or any inferior court, or to membership in the " board 
of county commissioners," unless he shall be at least twenty-five 
years of age, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he 
shall have resided in this State five years next preceding his elec- 
tion, and be a resident of the circuit, county, city, cities, or incor- 
porated town in which he shall be elected. 

COUNTY COURTS. 

Sec 18. There shall be elected in and for each county, one 
county judge and one clerk of the county court, whose terms of 
office shall be four years. But the General Assembly may create 
districts of two or more contiguous counties, in each of which 
shall be elected one judge, who shall take the place of, and exer- 
cise the powers and jurisdiction of county judges in such districts. 
County courts shall be courts of record, and shall have original 
jurisdiction in all matters of probate ; settlement of estates of 
deceased persons ; appointment of guardians and conservators, 
and settlements of their accounts ; in all matters relating to ap- 
prentices; and in proceedings for the collection of taxes and 
assessments, and such other jurisdiction as may be provided for 
by general law. 

Sec. 19. Appeals and writs of error shall be allowed from final 
determinations of county courts, as may be provided by law. 

PROBATE COURTS. 

Sec. 20. The General Assembly may provide for the establish- 
ment of a probate court in each county having a population of 
over fifty thousand, and for the election of a judge thereof, whose 
term of office shall be the same as that of the county judge, and 
who shall be elected at the same time and in the same manner. 
Said courts, when established, shall have original jurisdiction of 
all probate matters, the settlement of estates of deceased persons, 
the appointment of guardians and conservators, and settlements 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 99 

of their accounts ; in all matters relating to apprentices, and in 
cases of sales of real estate of deceased persons for the payment 
of debts. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND CONSTABLES. 

Sec. 21. Justices of the peace, police magistrates and con- 
stables shall be elected in and for such districts as are, or may be, 
provided by law, and the jurisdiction of such justices of the peace 
and police magistrates shall be uniform. 

state's attorneys. 
Sec. 22. At the election for members of the General Assembly 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy- 
two, and every four years thereafter, there shall be elected a State's 
attorney in and for each county, in lieu of the State's attorneys 
now provided by law, whose term of office shall be four years. 

courts of cook county. 

Sec. 23. The county of Cook shall be one judicial circuit. The 
circuit court of Cook county shall consist of five judges, until their 
number shall be increased, as herein provided. The present judge 
of the recorder's court of the city of Chicago, and the present 
judge of the circuit court of Cook county, shall be two of said 
judges, and shall remain in office for the terms for which they 
were respectively elected, and until their successors shall be elected 
and qualified. The superior court of Chicago shall be continued 
and called the " superior court of Cook county." The General 
Assembly may increase the number of said judges, by adding one 
to either of said courts for every additional fifty thousand inhab- 
itants in said county over and above a population of four hun- 
dred thousand. The terms of office of the judges of said courts, 
hereafter elected, shall be six years. 

Sec. 24. The judge having the shortest unexpired term shall be 
chief-justice of the court of which he is a judge. In case there 
are two or more whose terms expire at the same time, it may be 
determined by lot which shall be chief-justice. Any judge of 
either of said courts shall have all the powers of a circuit judge, 
and may hold the court of which he is a member. Each of them 
may hold a different branch thereof at the same time. 

Sec. 25. The judges of the superior and circuit courts, and the 
State's attorney, in said county, shall receive the same salaries, 



100 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

payable out of the State treasury, as is or may be paid from said 
treasury to the circuit judges and State's attorneys of the State, 
and such further compensation, to be paid by the county of Cook, 
as is or may be provided by law. Such compensation shall not 
be changed during their continuance in office. 

Sec. 26. The recorder's court of the city of Chicago shall be 
continued, and shall be called the "criminal court of Cook 
county." It shall have the jurisdiction of a circuit court in all 
cases of criminal and quasi criminal nature, arising in the county 
of Cook, or that may be brought before said court pursuant to 
law ; and all recognizances and appeals taken in said county, in 
criminal and quasi criminal cases shall be returnable and taken 
to said court. It shall have no jurisdiction in civil cases, except 
in those on behalf of the people, and incident to such criminal or 
quasi criminal matters, and to dispose of unfinished business. 
The terms of said criminal court of Cook county shall be held by 
one or more of the judges of the circuit or superior court of Cook 
county, as nearly as may be in alternation, as may be determined 
by said judges, or provided by law. Said judges shall be ex-officio 
judges of said court. 

Sec. 27. The present clerk of the recorder's court of the city 
of Chicago shall be the clerk of the criminal court of Cook county, 
during the term for which he was elected. The present clerks of 
the superior court of Chicago, and the present clerk of the circuit 
court of Cook county, shall continue in office during the terms for 
which they were respectively elected ; and thereafter there shall 
be but one clerk of the superior court, to be elected by the quali- 
fied electors of said county, who shall hold his office for the term 
of four years, and until his successor is elected and qualified. 

Sec. 28. All justices of the peace in the city of Chicago 
shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and 
consent of the senate (but only upon the recommendation of a 
majority of the judges of the circuit, superior and county courts), 
and for such districts as are now or shall hereafter be provided by 
law. They shall hold their offices for four years, and until their 
successors have been commissioned and qualified, but they may 
be removed by summary proceedings in the circuit or superior 
court, for extortion or other malfeasance. Existing justices of the 
peace and police magistrates may hold their offices until the expi- 
ration of their respective terms. 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 101 

GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

Sec. 29. All judicial officers shall be commissioned by the gov- 
ernor. All laws relating to courts shall be general, and of uniform 
operation ; and the organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings 
and practice of all courts, of the same class or grade, so far as 
regulated by law, and the force and effect of the process, judg- 
ments and decrees of such courts, severally, shall be uniform. 

Sec. 30. The General Assembly may, for cause entered on the 
journals, upon due notice and opportunity of defense, remove 
from office any judge, upon concurrence of three-fourths of all the 
members elected, of each house. All other officers in this article 
mentioned shall be removed from office on prosecution and final 
conviction, for misdemeanor in office. 

Sec. 31. All judges of courts of record, inferior to the supreme 
court, shall, on or before the first day of June, of each year, report 
in writing to the judges of the supreme court, such defects and 
omissions in the laws as their experience may suggest; and the 
judges of the supreme court shall, on or before the first day of 
January, of each year, report in writing to the governor such 
defects and omissions in the constitution and laws as they may 
find to exist, together with appropriate forms of bills to cure such 
defects and omissions in the laws. And the judges of the several 
circuit courts shall report to the next General Assembly the num- 
ber of days they have held court in the several counties composing 
their respective circuits, the preceding two years. 

Sec. 32. All officers provided for in this article shall hold their 
offices until their successors shall be qualified, and they shall, 
respectively, reside in the division, circuit, county or district for 
which they may be elected or appointed. The terms of office of 
all such officers, where not otherwise prescribed in this article, 
shall be four years. All officers, where not otherwise provided for 
in this article, shall perform such duties and receive such compen- 
sation as is or may be provided by law. Vacancies in such elec- 
tive offices shall be filled by election ; but where the unexpired 
term does not exceed one year, the vacancy shall be filled by 
appointment, as follows : Of judges, by the governor ; of clerks of 
courts, by the court to which the office appertains, or by the judge 
or judges thereof ; and of all such other offices, by the board of 
supervisors, or board of county commissioners, in the county 
where the vacancy occurs. 



102 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

Sec. 33. All process shall run : In the name of the People of the 
State of Illinois ; and all prosecutions shall be carried on : In the 
name and by the authority of the People of the State of Illinois ; and 
conclude : Against the peace and dignity of the same. " Popula- 
tion," wherever used in this article, shall be determined by the 
next preceding census of this State, or of the United States. 



ARTICLE VII. 

SUFFRAGE. 

Section 1. Every person having resided in this State one year, 
in the county ninety days, and in the election district thirty days 
next preceding any election therein, who was an elector in this 
State on the first day of April, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and forty-eight, or obtained a certificate of 
naturalization before any court of record in this State, prior to 
the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy, or who shall be a male citizen of the 
United States, above the age of twenty-one years, shall be entitled 
to vote at such election. 

Sec. 2. All votes shall be by ballot. 

Sec. 3. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attend- 
ance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same. 
And no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on the days 
of election, except in time of war or public danger. 

Sec. 4. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence 
in this State by reason of his absence on the business of the 
United States, or of this State, or in the military or naval service 
of the United States. 

Sec. 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of 
the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State in 
consequence of being stationed therein. 

Sec. 6. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in 
this State, civil or military, who is not a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not have resided in this State one year next 
preceding the election or appointment. 

Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall pass laws excluding from 
the right of suffrage persons convicted of infamous crimes. 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 103 

AETICLE VIII. 

EDUCATION. 

Section 1. The General Assembly shall provide a thorough 
and efficient system of free schools, whereby all children of this 
State may receive a good common school education. 

Sec. 2. All lands, moneys, or other property, donated, granted, 
or received for school, college, seminary or university purposes, 
and the proceeds thereof, shall be faithfully applied to the objects 
for which such gifts or grants were made. 

Sec. 3. Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, 
town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall 
ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund what- 
ever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to 
help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, 
university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by 
any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any 
grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever 
be made by the State or any such public corporation, to any 
church or for any sectarian purpose. 

Sec. 4. No teacher, State, county, township, or district school 
officer shall be interested in the sale, proceeds or profits of any 
book, apparatus or furniture, used or to be used in any school in 
this State with which such officer or teacher may be connected, 
under such penalties as may be provided by the General As- 
sembly. 

Sec. 5. There may be a county superintendent of schools in 
each county, whose qualifications, powers, duties, compensation, 
and time and manner of election, and term of office, shall be pre- 
scribed by law. 

AETICLE IX. 

REVENUE. 

Section 1. The General Assembly shall provide such revenue 
as may be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so that every 
person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value 
of his, her, or its property — such value to be ascertained by some 
person or persons, to be elected or appointed in such manner as 
the General Assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the 
General Assembly shall have power to tax peddlers, auctioneers, 



104 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

brokers, hawkers, merchants, commission merchants, showmen, 
jugglers, inn-keepers, grocery-keepers, liquor-dealers, toll-bridges, 
ferries, insurance, telegraph and express interests or business, 
venders of patents, and persons or corporations owning or using 
franchises and privileges, in such manner as it shall from time to 
time direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it 
operates. 

Sec. 2. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxa- 
tion shall not deprive the General Assembly of the power to 
require other subjects or objects to be taxed, in such manner as 
may be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this 
constitution. • 

Sec. 3. The property of the State, counties, and other munici- 
pal corporations, both real and personal, and such other property 
as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural 
societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, 
may be exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be 
only by general law. In the assessment of real estate incumbered 
by public easement, any depreciation occasioned by such ease- 
ment may be deducted in the valuation of such property. 

Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall provide, in all cases where 
it may be necessary to sell real estate for the non-payment of 
taxes or special assessments, for State, county, municipal, or other 
purposes, that a return of such unpaid taxes or assessments shall 
be made to some general officer of the county, having authority 
to receive State and county taxes ; and there shall be no sale of 
said property for any of said taxes or assessments but by said 
officer, upon the order or judgment of some court of record. 

Sec. 5. The right of redemption from all sales of real estate 
for the non-payment of taxes or special assessments of any char- 
acter whatever, shall exist in favor of owners and persons inter- 
ested in such real estate for a period of not less than two years 
from such sales thereof. And the General Assembly shall pro- 
vide by law, for reasonable notice to be given to the owners or 
parties interested, by publication or otherwise, of the fact 
of the sale of the property for such taxes or assessments, and 
when the time of redemption shall expire : Provided, that occu- 
pants shall in all cases be served with personal notice before the 
time of redemption expires. 

Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall have no power to release 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 105 

or discharge any county, city, township, town or district what- 
ever, or the inhabitants thereof, or the property therein, from 
their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for State 
purposes, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in 
any form whatsoever. 

Sec. 7. All taxes levied for State purposes shall be paid into 
the State treasury. 

Sec. 8. County authorities shall never assess taxes the aggre- 
gate of which shall exceed seventy -five cents per one hundred dol- 
lars valuation, except for the payment of indebtedness existing at 
the adoption of this constitution, unless authorized by a vote of 
the people of the county. 

Sec. 9. The General Assembly may vest the corporate author- 
ities of cities, towns and villages, with power to make local im- 
provements by special assessment or by special taxation of 
contiguous property, or otherwise. For all other corporate pur- 
poses, all municipal corporations may be vested with authority to 
assess and collect taxes ; but such taxes shall be uniform in respect 
to persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body im- 
posing the same. 

Sec. 10. The General Assembly shall not impose taxes upon 
municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for 
corporate purposes, but shall require that all the taxable property 
within the limits of municipal corporations shall be taxed for the 
payment of debts contracted under authority of law, such taxes 
to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the juris- 
diction of the body imposing the same. Private property shall 
not be liable to be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate 
debts of a municipal corporation. 

Sec. 11. No person who is in default, as collector or custodian 
of money or property belonging to a municipal corporation, shall 
be eligible to any office in or under such corporation. The fees, 
salary or compensation of no municipal officer who is elected or 
appointed for a definite term of office, shall be increased or dimin- 
ished during such term. 

Sec. 12. No county, city, township, school district, or other 
municipal corporation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any 
manner or for any purpose, to an amount, including existing 
indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding five per centum on the 
value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the 



106 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

last assessment for State and county taxes previous to the incur- 
ring of such indebtedness. Any county, city, school district, or 
other municipal corporation, incurring any indebtedness as afore- 
said, shall, before or at the time of doing so, provide for the col- 
lection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on 
such debt, as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the prin- 
cipal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting 
the same. This section shall not be construed to prevent any 
county, city, township, school district, or other municipal corpor- 
ation, from issuing their bonds in compliance with any vote of 
the people which may have been had prior to the adoption of this 
constitution in pursuance of any law providing therefor. 

ARTICLE X. 

COUNTIES. 

Section 1. No new county shall be formed or established by 
the General Assembly which will reduce the county or counties, 
or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents 
than four hundred square miles ; nor shall any county be formed 
of less contents ; nor shall any line thereof pass within less than 
ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed 
to be divided. 

Sec. 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken 
therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people 
of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the 
county voting on the question, shall vote for the same. 

Sec. 3. There shall be no territory stricken from any county, 
unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall peti- 
tion for such division; and no territory shall be added to any 
county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the 
county to which it is proposed to be added. But the portion so 
stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or 
in part into a new county, shall be holden for, and obliged to pay 
its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which it has 
been taken. 

COUNTY seats. 
Sec. 4. No county seat shall be removed until the point to 
which it is proposed to be removed shall be fixed in pursuance of 
law, and three-fifths of the voters of the county, to be ascertained 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 107 

in such manner as shall be provided by general law, shall have 
voted in favor of its removal to such point ; and no person shall 
vote on such question who has not resided in the county six 
months, and in the election precinct ninety days next preceding 
such election. The question of the removal of a county seat shall 
not be oftener submitted than once in ten years, to a vote of the 
people. But when an attempt is made to remove a county seat to 
a point nearer to the centre of a county, then a majority vote 
only shall be necessary. 

COUNTY GOVEENMENT. 

Sec. 5. The General Assembly shall provide, by general law, 
for township organization, under which any county may organize 
whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at 
any general election, shall so determine, and whenever any county 
shall adopt township organization, so much of this constitution 
as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns of the said 
county by the board of county commissioners, may be dispensed 
with, and the affairs of said county may be transacted in such 
manner as the General Assembly may provide. And in any 
county that shall have adopted a township organization, the ques- 
tion of continuing the same may be submitted to a vote of the 
electors of such county, at a general election, in the manner that 
now is or may be provided by law ; and if a majority of all the 
votes cast upon that question shall be against township organiza- 
tion, then such organization shall cease in said county ; and all 
laws in force in relation to counties not having township organi- 
zation, shall immediately take effect and be in force in such 
county. No two townships shall have the same name, and the 
day of holding the annual township meeting shall be uniform 
throughout the State. 

Sec. 6. At the first election of county judges under this consti- 
tution, there shall be elected in each of the counties in this State, 
not under township organization, three officers, who shall be styled 
"The board of county commissioners," who shall hold sessions 
for the transaction of county business as shall be provided by law. 
One of said commissioners shall hold his office for one year, one 
for two years, and one for three years, to be determined by lot ; 
and every year thereafter one such officer shall be elected in each 
of said counties for the term of three years. 



108 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

Sec. 7. The county affairs of Cook county shall be managed 
by a board of commissioners of fifteen persons, ten of whom shall 
be elected from the city of Chicago, and five from towns outside 
of said city, in such manner as may be provided by law. 

COUNTY OFFICERS AND THEIR COMPENSATION. 

Sec. 8. In each county there shall be elected the following 

S county officers, at the general election to be held on the Tues- 

rt day after the first Monday in November, A. d. 1882 : A county 

•5 judge, county clerk, sheriff, and treasurer; and at the election 

© to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 

g A. D. 1884, a coroner and clerk of the circuit court (who may 

| be ex-officio recorder of deeds, except in counties having 60,000 

w and more inhabitants, in which counties a recorder of deeds 

shall be elected at the general election in 1884). Each of said 

officers shall enter upon the duties of his office, respectively, on 

the first Monday of December after his election, and they shall 

hold their respective offices for the term of four years, and until 

their successors are elected and qualified : Provided, that no person 

having once been elected to the office of sheriff or treasurer shall 

be eligible to re-election to said office for four years after the 

expiration of the term for which he shall have been elected. 

Sec. 9. The clerks of all the courts of record, the treasurer, 
sheriff, coroner and recorder of deeds of Cook county, shall receive 
as their only compensation for their services, salaries to be fixed 
by law, which shall in no case be as much as the lawful compen- 
sation of a judge of the circuit court of said county, and shall be 
paid, respectively, only out of the fees of the office actually col- 
lected. All fees, perquisites and emoluments (above the amounts 
of said salaries) shall be paid into the county treasury. The 
number of the deputies and assistants of such officers shall be 
determined by rule of the circuit court, to be entered of record, 
and their compensation shall be determined by the county board. 
Sec. 10. The county board, except as provided in section nine 
of this article, shall fix the compensation of all county officers, 
with the amount of their necessary clerk hire, stationery, fuel and 
other expenses, and in all cases where fees are provided for, said 
compensation shall be paid only out of, and shall in no instance 
exceed, the fees actually collected ; they shall not allow either of 
them more per annum than fifteen hundred dollars, in counties 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 109 

not exceeding twenty thousand inhabitants ; two thousand dollars, 
in counties containing twenty thousand and not exceeding thirty 
thousand inhabitants; twenty-five hundred dollars, in counties 
containing thirty thousand and not exceeding fifty thousand 
inhabitants ; three thousand dollars, in counties containing fifty 
thousand and not exceeding seventy thousand inhabitants ; thirty- 
five hundred dollars, in counties containing seventy thousand and 
not exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants ; and four thou- 
sand dollars, in counties containing one hundred thousand and 
not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants ; and 
not more than one thousand dollars additional compensation for 
each additional one hundred thousand inhabitants : Provided, that 
the compensation of no officer shall be increased or diminished 
during his term of office. All fees or allowances by them received, 
in excess of their said compensation, shall be paid into the county 
treasury. 

Sec. 11. The fees of township officers, and of each class of 
county officers, shall be uniform in the class of counties to which 
they respectively belong. The compensation herein provided for 
shall apply only to officers hereafter elected, but all fees estab- 
lished by special laws shall cease at the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, and such officers shall receive only such fees as are provided 
by general law. 

Sec. 12. All laws fixing the fees of State, county, and township 
officers shall terminate with the terms respectively of those who 
may be in office at the meeting of the first General Assembly after 
the adoption of this constitution; and the General Assembly 
shall, by general law, uniform in its operation, provide for and 
regulate the fees of said officers and their successors, so as to 
reduce the same to a reasonable compensation for services actually 
rendered. But the General Assembly may, by general law, 
classify the counties by population into not more than three 
classes, and regulate the fees according to class. This article 
shall not be construed as depriving the General Assembly of the 
power to reduce the fees of existing officers. 

Sec. 13. Every person who is elected or appointed to any office 
in this State, who shall be paid in whole or in part by fees, shall 
be required by law to make a semi-annual report, under oath, to 
some officer to be designated by law, of all his fees and emolu- 
ments. 



110 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

AETICLE XL 

CORPOKATIONS. 

Section 1. No corporation shall be created by special laws, 
or its charter extended, changed, or amended, except those for 
charitable, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, which are 
to be and remain under the patronage and control of the State, 
but the General Assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the 
organization of all corporations hereafter to be created. 

Sec. 2. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive 
privileges, under which organization shall not have taken place, 
or which shall not have been in operation within ten days from 
the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no 
validity or effect whatever. 

Sec. 3. The General Assembly shall provide, by law, that in 
all elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies, 
every stockholder shall have the right to vote, in person or by 
proxy, for the number of shares of stock owned by him, for as 
many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected, or 
to cumulate said shares, and give one candidate as many votes as 
the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares 
of stock, shall equal, or distribute them on the same principle 
among as many candidates as he shall think fit ; and such direc- 
tors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner. 

Sec. 4. No law shall be passed by the General Assembly, 
granting the right to construct and operate a street railroad with- 
in any city, town, or incorporated village, without requiring the 
consent of the local authorities having the control of the street or 
highway proposed to be occupied by such street railroad. 

BANKS. 

Sec. 5. No State bank shall hereafter be created, nor shall the 
State own or be liable for any stock in any corporation or joint 
stock company or association for banking purposes, now created, 
or to be hereafter created. No act of the General Assembly 
authorizing or creating corporations or associations, with banking 
powers, whether of issue, deposit or discount, nor amendments 
thereto, shall go into effect, or in any manner be in force, unless 
the same shall be submitted to a vote of the people at the general 
election next succeeding the passage of the same, and be approved 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. Ill 

by a majority of all the votes cast at such an election for or 
against such law. 

Sec. 6. Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institu- 
tion shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, 
over and above the amount of stock by him or her held, to an 
amount equal to his or her respective shares so held, for all its 
liabilities accruing while he or she remains such stockholder. 

Sec. 7. The suspension of specie payments by banking institu- 
tions, on their circulation, created by the laws of this State, shall 
never be permitted or sanctioned. Every banking association 
now, or which may hereafter be, organized under the laws of this 
State, shall make and publish a full and accurate quarterly state- 
ment of its affairs (which shall be certified to, under oath, by one 
or more of its officers), as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 8. If a general banking law shall be enacted, it shall pro- 
vide for the registry and countersigning, by an officer of State, of 
all bills or paper credit, designed to circulate as money, and 
require security, to the full amount thereof, to be deposited with 
the state treasurer, in United States or Illinois State stocks, to be 
rated at ten per cent, below their par value ; and in case of a 
depreciation of said stocks to the amount of ten per cent, below 
par, the bank or banks owning said stocks shall be required to 
make up said deficiency, by depositing additional stocks. And 
said law shall also provide for the recording of the names of all 
stockholders in such corporation, the amount of stock held by 
each, the time of any transfer thereof, and to whom such transfer 
is made. 

RAILROADS. 

Sec. 9. Every railroad corporation organized or doing business 
in this State, under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and 
maintain a public office or place in this State for the transaction 
of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made and in 
which shall be kept, for public inspection, books in which shall 
be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by whom ; 
the names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned by 
them respectively ; the amount of stock paid in, and by whom ; 
the transfers of said stock ; the amount of its assets and liabilities, 
and the names and place of residence of its officers. The direc- 
tors of every railway corporation shall, annually, make a report 
under oath, to the auditor of public accounts, or some officer to 



112 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

be designated by law, of all their acts and doings, which report 
shall include such matters relating to railroads as may be pre- 
scribed by law. And the General Assembly shall pass laws 
enforcing by suitable penalties the provisions of this section. 

Sec. 10. The rolling stock, and all other movable property 
belonging to any railroad company or corporation in this State, 
shall be considered personal property, and shall be liable to 
execution and sale in the same manner as the personal property 
of individuals, and the General Assembly shall pass no law 
exempting any such property from execution and sale. 

Sec. 11. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, 
property or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning 
a parallel or competing line ; and in no case shall any consolida- 
tion take place except upon public notice given, of at least sixty 
days, to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by 
law. A majority of the directors of any railroad corporation, 
now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated by the laws of 
this State, shall be citizens and residents of this State. 

Sec. 12. Eailways heretofore constructed or that may hereafter 
be constructed in this State, are hereby declared public highways, 
and shall be free to all persons, for the transportation of their 
persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be 
prescribed by law. And the General Assembly shall, from time 
time, pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of charges 
for the transportation of passengers and freight on the different 
railroads in this State. 

Sec. 13. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds, 
except for money, labor or property, actually received, and applied 
to the purpose for which such corporation was created ; and all 
stock dividends, and other fictitious increase of capital stock or 
indebtedness of any such corporation, shall be void. The capital 
stock of no railroad corporation shall be increased for any pur- 
pose, except upon giving sixty days' public notice, in such manner 
as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 14. The exercise of the power, and the right of eminent 
domain shall never be construed or abridged as to prevent the 
taking by the General Assembly, of the property and franchises 
of incorporated companies already organized, and subjecting 
them to the public necessity the same as of individuals. The 
right of trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 1 13 

for compensation, when, in the exercise of the said right of emi- 
nent domain, any incorporated company shall be interested either 
for or against the exercise of said right. 

Sec. 15. The General Assembly shall pass laws to correct 
abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the 
rates of freight and passenger tariffs on the different railroads in 
this State, and enforce such laws by adequate penalties, to the ex- 
tent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property 
and franchises. 

ARTICLE XII. 

MILITIA. 

Section 1. The militia of the State of Illinois shall consist of 
all able-bodied male persons, resident in the State, between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five, except such persons as now are 
or hereafter may be, exempted by the laws of the United States 
or of this State. 

Sec. 2. The General Assembly, in providing for the organ- 
ization, equipment and discipline of the militia, shall conform, as 
nearly as practicable, to the regulations for the government of the 
armies of the United States. 

Sec. 3. All militia officers shall be commissioned by the gov- 
ernor, and may hold their commissions for such time as the Gen- 
eral Assembly may provide. 

Sec. 4. The militia shall, in all cases except treason, felony, 
or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at musters and elections, and in going to and returning 
from the same. 

Sec. 5. The military records, banners and relics of the State 
shall be preserved as an enduring memorial of the patriotism and 
valor of Illinois, and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly 
to provide by law for the safe keeping of the same. 

Sec. 6. No person having conscientious scruples against bear- 
ing arms shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace : 
Provided, such person shall pay an equivalent for such exemption. 

ARTICLE XIII. 

WAREHOUSES. 

Section 1. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other 
property is stored for a compensation, whether the property 
8 



114 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

stored be kept separate or not, are declared to be public ware- 
houses. 

Sec. 2. The owner, lessee or manager of each and every public 
warehouse situated in any town or city of not less than one hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, shall make weekly statements under 
oath, before some officer to be designated by law, and keep the 
same posted in some conspicuous place in the office of such ware- 
house, and shall also file a copy for public examination in such 
place as shall be designated by law, which statement shall cor- 
rectly set forth the amount and grade of each and every kind of 
grain in such warehouse, together with such other property as 
may be stored therein, and what warehouse receipts have been 
issued, and are, at the time of making such statement, outstand- 
ing therefor ; and shall, on the copy posted in the warehouse, note 
daily such changes as may be made in the quantity and grade of 
grain in such warehouse; and the different grades of grain 
shipped in separate lots shall not be mixed with inferior or 
superior grades, without the consent of the owner or consignee 
thereof. 

Sec. 3. The owners of property stored in any warehouse, or 
holder of a receipt for the same, shall always be at liberty to 
examine such property stored, and all the books and records of 
the warehouse, in regard to such property. 

Sec. 4. All railroad companies and other common carriers on 
railroads shall weigh or measure grain at points where it is 
shipped, and receipt for the full amount, and shall be responsible 
for the delivery of such amount to the owner or consignee there- 
of, at the place of destination. 

Sec. 5. All railroad companies receiving and transporting 
grain in bulk or otherwise, shall deliver the same to any consignee 
thereof, or any elevator or public warehouse to which it may be 
consigned, provided such consignee or the elevator or public ware- 
house can be reached by any track owned, leased or used, or 
which can be used, by such railroad companies ; and all railroad 
companies shall permit connections to be made with their track, 
so that any such consignee, and any public warehouse, coal bank 
or coal yard, may be reached by the cars on said railroad. 

Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass 
all necessary laws to prevent the issue of false and fraudulent 
warehouse receipts, and to give full effect to this article of the 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 115 

constitution, which shall be liberally construed so as to protect 
producers and shippers. And the enumeration of the remedies 
herein named shall not be construed to deny to the General 
Assembly the power to prescribe by law such other and further 
remedies as may be found expedient, or to deprive any person of 
existing common law remedies. 

Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall pass laws for the inspec- 
tion of grain, for the protection of producers, shippers and receiv- 
ers of grain and produce. 



ARTICLE XIV. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Section 1. Whenever two-thirds of the members of each 
house of the General Assembly shall, by a vote entered upon the 
journals thereof, concur that a convention is necessary to revise, 
alter or amend the constitution, the question shall be submitted 
to the electors at the next general election. If a majority voting 
at the election vote for a convention, the General Assembly shall, 
at the next session, provide for a convention, to consist of double 
the number of members of the senate, to be elected in same 
manner, at the same places, and in the same districts. The Gen- 
eral Assembly shall, in the act calling the convention, designate 
the day, hour and place of its meeting, fixing the pay of its mem- 
bers and officers, and provide for the payment of the same, together 
with the expenses necessarily incurred by the convention in the 
performance of its duties. Before proceeding, the members shall 
take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and 
of the State of Illinois, and to faithfully discharge their duties as 
members of the convention. The qualification of members shall 
be the same as that of members of the senate, and vacancies 
occurring shall be rilled in the manner provided for filling vacan- 
cies in the General Assembly. Said convention shall meet within 
three months after such election, and prepare such revision, alter- 
ation or amendments of the constitution as shall be deemed neces- 
sary, which shall be submitted to the electors for their ratification 
or rejection, at an election appointed by the convention for that 
purpose, not less than two nor more than six months after the 
adjournment thereof; and unless so submitted and approved, by a 



116 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

majority of the electors voting at the election, no such revision, 
alteration or amendment shall take effect. 

Sec. 2. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed in 
either house of the General Assembly, and if the same shall be 
voted for by two-thirds of all the members elected to each of the 
two houses, such proposed amendments, together with the yeas 
and nays of each house thereon, shall be entered in full on their 
respective journals, and said amendments shall be submitted 
to the electors of this State for adoption or rejection, at the next 
election of members of the General Assembly, in such manner as 
may be prescribed by law. The proposed amendments shall be 
published in full at least three months preceding the election, and 
if a majority of the electors voting at said election shall vote for 
the proposed amendments, they shall become a part of this consti- 
tution. But the General Assembly shall have no power to propose 
amendments to more than one article of this constitution at the 
same session, nor to the same article oftener than once in four 
years. 

SECTIONS SEPARATELY SUBMITTED. 

ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 

No contract, obligation or liability whatever, of the Illinois 
Central Railroad Company to pay any money into the State 
treasury, nor any lien of the State upon, or right to tax property 
of said company, in accordance with the provisions of the charter 
of said company, approved February tenth, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty -one, shall ever be 
released, suspended, modified, altered, remitted, or in any manner 
diminished or impaired by legislative or other authority ; and all 
moneys derived from said company, after the payment of the 
State debt, shall be appropriated and set apart for the payment of 
the ordinary expenses of the State government, and for no other 
purposes whatever. 

MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 

(See Sections 7 and 8, Article 4, page 80.) 

MUNICIPAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO RAILROADS OR PRIVATE COR- 
PORATIONS. 

No county, city, town, township, or other municipality, shall 
ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or 









CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 117 

private corporation, or make donation to or loan its credit in aid 
of such corporation : Provided, however, that the adoption of this 
article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any such 
municipality to make such subscriptions where the same have 
been authorized, under existing laws, by a vote of the people of 
such municipalities prior to such adoption. 

ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL. 

The Illinois and Michigan Canal shall never be sold or leased 
until the specific proposition for the sale or lease thereof shall 
first have been submitted to a vote of the people of the State, at a 
general election, and have been approved by a majority of all the 
votes polled at such election. The General Assembly shall never 
loan the credit of the State, or make appropriations from the 
treasury thereof, in aid of railroads or canals : Provided, that any 
surplus earnings of any canal may be appropriated for its enlarge- 
ment or extension. 

SCHEDULE. 

That no inconvenience may arise from the alterations and 
amendments made in the constitution of this State, and to carry 
the same into complete effect, it is hereby ordained and declared : 

Section 1. That all laws in force at the adoption of this con- 
stitution, not inconsistent therewith, and all rights, actions, pros- 
ecutions, claims and contracts of this State, individuals, or bodies 
corporate, shall continue to be as valid as if this constitution had 
not been adopted. 

Sec. 2. That all fines, taxes, penalties and forfeitures, due and 
owing to the State of Illinois under the present constitution and 
laws, shall inure to the use of the people of the State of Illinois, 
under this constitution. 

Sec. 3. Eecognizances, bonds, obligations, and all other instru- 
ments entered into or executed before the adoption of this consti- 
tution, to the people of the State of Illinois, to any State or 
county officer or public body, shall remain binding and valid ; and 
rights and liabilities upon the same shall continue, and all crimes 
and misdemeanors shall be tried and punished as though no 
change had been made in the constitution of this State. 

Sec. 4. County courts for the transaction of county business 
in counties not having adopted township organization, shall con- 



118 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

tinue in existence, and exercise their present jurisdiction until 
the board of county commissioners provided in this constitution 
is organized in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly; 
and the county courts in all other counties shall have the same 
power and jurisdiction they now possess until otherwise provided 
by law. 

Sec. 5. All existing courts which are not in this constitution 
specifically enumerated, shall continue in existence and exercise 
their present jurisdiction until otherwise provided by law. 

Sec. 6. All persons now filling any office or appointment shall 
continue in the exercise of the duties thereof according to their 
respective commissions or appointments, unless by this constitu- 
tion it is otherwise directed. 

Sec. 7. On the day this constitution is submitted to the people 
for ratification, an election shall be held forjudges of the supreme 
court in the second, third, sixth and seventh judicial election dis- 
tricts designated in this constitution, and for the election of three 
judges of the circuit court in the county of Cook, as provided for 
in the article of this constitution relating ' to the judiciary, at 
which election every person entitled to vote, according to the 
terms of this constitution, shall be allowed to vote, and the elec- 
tion shall be otherwise conducted, returns made, and certificates 
issued, in accordance with existing laws, except that no registry 
shall be required at said election : Provided, that at said election 
in the county of Cook no elector shall vote for more than two can- 
didates for circuit judge. If, upon canvassing the votes for and 
against the adoption of this constitution, it shall appear that there 
has been polled a greater number of votes against than for it, then 
no certificates of election shall be issued for any of said supreme 
or circuit judges. 

Sec. 8. This constitution shall be submitted to the people of 
the State of Illinois for adoption or rejection at an election to be 
held on the first Saturday in July, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and seventy, and there shall be separately 
submitted at the same time, for adoption or rejection, sections 
nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, relating to 
railroads, in the article entitled " Corporations," the article en- 
titled " Counties," the article entitled " Warehouses," the question 
of requiring a three-fifths vote to remove a county seat, the sec- 
tion relating to the Illinois Central Eailroad, the section in rela- 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 119 

tion to minority representation, the section relating to municipal 
subscriptions to railroads or private corporations, and the section 
relating to the canal. Every person entitled to vote under the 
provisions of this constitution, as defined in the article in relation 
to suffrage, shall be entitled to vote for the adoption or rejection of 
this constitution, and for or against the articles, sections and ques- 
tions aforesaid, separately submitted, and the said qualified elec- 
tors"shall vote at the usual places of voting, unless otherwise pro- 
vided ; and the said election shall be conducted, and returns there- 
of made, according to the laws now in force regulating general 
elections, except that no registry shall be required at said election : 
Provided, however, that the polls shall be kept open for the recep- 
tion of ballots until sunset of said day of election. 

Sec. 9. The secretary of state shall, at least twenty days before 
said election, cause to be delivered to the county clerk of each 
county, blank poll-books, tally-lists, and forms of return, and 
twice the number of properly-prepared printed ballots for the said 
election that there are voters in such county, the expense whereof 
shall be audited and paid as other public printing ordered by the 
secretary of state is, by law, required to be audited and paid, and 
the several county clerks shall, at least five days before said elec- 
tion, cause to be distributed to the board of election, in each elec- 
tion district in their respective counties, said blank poll-books, 
tally-lists, forms of return, and tickets. 

Sec. 10. At the said election the ballots shall be in the follow- 
ing form : 

NEW CONSTITUTION TICKET. 

For all the propositions on this ticket which are not canceled 
with ink or pencil, and against all propositions which are so can- 
celed. 

For the new constitution. 

For the sections relating to railroads in the article entitled 
" Corporations." 

For the article entitled " Counties." 

For the article entitled " Warehouses." 

For a three-fifths vote to remove county seats. 

For the section relating to the Illinois Central Railroad. 

For the section relating to minority representation. 

For the section relating to municipal subscriptions to railroads 
or private corporations. 



120 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

For the section relating to the canal. 

Each of said tickets shall be counted as a vote cast for each 
proposition thereon not canceled with ink or pencil, and against 
each proposition so canceled, and returns thereof shall be made 
accordingly by the judges of election. 

Sec. 11. The returns of the whole vote cast, and of the votes 
for the adoption or rejection of this constitution, and for or against 
the articles and sections respectively submitted, shall be made by 
the several county clerks as is now provided by law, to the secre- 
tary of state, within twenty days after the election, and the 
returns of said votes shall, within five days thereafter, be exam- 
ined and canvassed by the auditor, treasurer and secretary of state, 
or any two of them, in the presence of the governor, and procla- 
mation shall be made by the governor forthwith of the result of 
the canvass. 

Sec. 12. If it shall appear that a majority of the votes polled 
are " for the new constitution/' then so much of this constitution 
as was not separately submitted to be voted on by articles and 
sections, shall be the supreme law of the State of Illinois, on and 
after Monday, the eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and seventy ; but if it shall appear 
that a majority of the votes polled were "against the new consti- 
tution/' then so much thereof as was not separately submitted to 
be voted on by articles and sections, shall be null and void. 

If it shall appear that a majority of the votes polled are "for 
the sections relating to railroads in the article entitled " Corpor- 
ations," sections nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen and 
fifteen, relating to railroads in the said article, shall be part of the 
constitution of this State ; but if a majority of said votes are 
against such sections, they shall be null and void. If a majority 
of the votes polled are " for the article entitled ' Counties/ " such 
article shall be a part of the constitution of this State, and shall 
be substituted for article seven in the present constitution, entitled 
" Counties ;" but if a majority of said votes are against such 
article, the same shall be null and void. If a majority of the 
votes polled are " for the article entitled ' Warehouses/ " such 
article shall be a part of the constitution of this State ; but if a 
majority of the votes are against said article, the same shall be 
null and void. If a majority of the votes polled are for either of 
the sections separately submitted, relating respectively to the 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 121 

"Illinois Central Railroad," "minority representation," "munici- 
pal subscriptions to railroads or private corporations," and the 
" Canal," then such of said sections as shall receive such majority, 
shall be a part of the constitution of this State ; but each of said 
sections so separately submitted, against which respectively there 
shall be a majority of the votes polled, shall be null and void : 
Provided, that the section relating to "minority representation" 
shall not be declared adopted unless the portion of the constitu- 
tion not separately submitted to be voted on by articles and sec- 
tions shall be adopted; and in case said section relating to 
"minority representation" shall become a portion of the constitu- 
tion, it shall be substituted for sections seven and eight of the 
legislative article. If a majority of the votes cast at such election 
shall be for a three-fifths vote to remove a county seat, then the 
words "a majority" shall be stricken out of section four of the 
article on Counties, and the words " three-fifths " shall be inserted 
in lieu thereof, and the following words shall be added to said 
section, to- wit : " But when an attempt is made to remove a county 
seat to a point nearer to the centre of a county, then a majority 
vote only shall be necessary." If the foregoing proposition shall 
not receive a majority of the votes, as aforesaid, then the same 
shall have no effect whatever. 

Sec. 13. Immediately after the adoption of this constitution, 
the governor and secretary of state shall proceed to ascertain and 
fix the apportionment of the State for members of the first 
House of Representatives under this constitution. The appor- 
tionment shall be based upon the federal census of the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, of the State 
of Illinois, and shall be made strictly in accordance with the 
rules and principles announced in the article on the legislative 
department of this constitution : Provided, that in case the fed- 
eral census aforesaid cannot be ascertained prior to Friday, the 
twenty-third day of September, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and seventy, then the said apportionment 
shall be based on the State census of the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in accordance with the 
rules and principles aforesaid. The governor shall on or before 
Wednesday, the twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, make official 
announcement of said apportionment, under the great seal of the 



122 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

State; and one hundred copies thereof, duly certified, shall be 
forthwith transmitted by the secretary of state to each county 
clerk for distribution. 

Sec. 14. The districts shall be regularly numbered by the sec- 
retary of state, commencing with Alexander county as number 
one, and proceeding then northwardly through the State, and 
terminating with the county of Cook, but no county shall be 
numbered as more than one district, except the county of Cook^ 
which shall constitute three districts, each embracing the territory 
contained in the now existing representative districts of said 
county. And on the Tuesday after the first Monday in Novem- 
ber, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
seventy, the members of the first House of Kepresentatives under 
this constitution shall be elected according to the apportionment 
fixed and announced as aforesaid, and shall hold their offices for 
two years, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. 

Sec. 15. The Senate, at its first session under this constitution, 
shall consist of fifty members, to be chosen as follows : At the 
general election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of 
November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
seventy, two senators shall be elected in districts where the term 
of senators expires on the first Monday of January, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one. or where 
there shall be a vacancy, and in the remaining districts one 
senator shall be elected. Senators so elected shall hold their office 
two years. 

Sec. 16. The General Assembly, at its first session held after 
the adoption of this constitution, shall proceed to apportion the 
State for members of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
in accordance with the provisions of the article on the legisla- 
tive department. 

Sec. 17. When this constitution shall be ratified by the people, 
the governor shall forthwith, after having ascertained the fact, 
issue writs of election to the sheriffs of the several counties of 
this State, or in case of vacancies, to the coroners, for the election 
of all the officers, the time of whose election is fixed by this con- 
stitution or schedule, and it shall* be the duty of such sheriffs or 
coroners to give such notice of the time and place of said elec- 
tion as is now prescribed by law. 

Sec. 18. All laws of the State of Illinois, and all official 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 123 

writings, and the executive, legislative and judicial proceedings 
shall be conducted, preserved and published in no other than the 
English language. 

Sec. 19. The General Assembly shall pass all laws necessary 
to carry into effect the provisions of this constitution. 

Sec. 20. The circuit clerks of the different counties, having a 
population over sixty thousand, shall continue to be recorders 
(ex-officio) for their respective counties, under this constitution, 
until the expiration of their respective terms. 

Sec. 21. The judges of all courts of record in Cook county 
shall, in lieu of any salary provided for in this constitution, receive 
the compensation now provided by law until the adjournment of 
the first session of the General Assembly after the adoption of 
this constitution. 

Sec. 22. The present judge of the circuit court of Cook county 
shall continue to hold the circuit court of Lake county until 
otherwise provided by law. 

Sec. 23. When this constitution shall be adopted, and take 
effect as the supreme law of the State of Illinois, the two-mill tax 
provided to be annually assessed and collected upon each dollar's 
worth of taxable property in addition to all other taxes, as set 
forth in article fifteen of the now existing constitution, shall cease 
to be assessed after the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and seventy. 

Sec. 24. Nothing contained in this constitution shall be so 
construed as to deprive the General Assembly of power to author- 
ize the city of Quincy to create any indebtedness for railroad or 
municipal purposes for which the people of said city shall have 
voted, and to which they shall have given, by such vote, their 
assent, prior to the thirteenth day of December, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine : Provided, that 
no such indebtedness, so created, shall, in any part thereof, be 
paid by the State, or from any State revenue, tax or fund, but the 
same shall be paid, if at all, by the said city of Quincy alone, and 
by taxes to be levied upon the taxable property thereof: And 
provided, further, that the General Assembly shall have no power 
in the premises that it could not exercise under the present con- 
stitution of this State. 

Sec. 25. In case this constitution and the articles and sections 
submitted separately, be adopted, the existing constitution shall 



124 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 



cease in all its provisions ; and in case this constitution be adopted, 
and any one or more of the articles or sections submitted sep- 
arately be defeated, the provisions of the existing constitution, if 
any, on the same subject, shall remain in force. 

Sec. 26. The provisions of this constitution required to be 
executed prior to the adoption or rejection thereof, shall take 
effect and be in force immediately. 

Done in convention at the capitol, in the city of Springfield, on 
the thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the ninety-fourth. 

Charles Hitchcock, President. 



William J. Allen, 
John Abbott, 
James C. Allen, 
Elliott Anthony, 
Wm. R. Archer, 
Henry I. Atkins, 
James G. Bayne, 
R. M. Benjamin, 
H. P. H. Bromwell, 
O. H. Browning, 
Wm. G. Bowman, 
Silas L. Bryan, 
H. P. Buxton, 
Daniel Cameron, 
William Cary, 
Lawrence S. Church, 
Hiram H. Cody, 
W. F. Coolbaugh, 
Alfred M. Craig, 
R. J. Cross. 
Samuel P. Cummings, 
John Dement, 
G. S. Eldridge, 
James W. English, 
David Ellis, 
Ferris Form an, 
Jesse C. Fox, 



Miles A. Fuller, 
John P. Gamble, 
Addison Goodell, 
William C. Goodhue, 
John C. Haines, 
Elijah M. Haines, 
John W. Hankins, 
R. P. Hanna, 
Joseph Hart, 
Abel Harwood, 
Milton Hay, 
Samuel Snowden Hayes, 
Jesse S. Hildrup, 
Robert A. King, 
James McCoy, 
Charles E. McDowell, 
Joseph Medill, 
Clifton H. Moore, 
Jonathan Merriam, 
Joseph Parker, 
Samuel C. Parker, 
Pel eg S. Perley, 
William P. Pierce, 
N. J. Pillsbury. 
J. S. Poage, 
Edward Y. Rice, 
James P. Robinson, 



CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 125 

Lewis W. Ross, Thomas J. Turner, 

John Schofield, Win. H. Underwood, 

Westel W. Sedgwick, Win. L. Vande venter, 

James M. Sharp, Henry W. Wells, 

Henry Sherrell, George E. Wait, 

Win. H. Snyder, George W. Wall, 

O. C. Skinner, D. C. Wagner, 

Charles F. Springer, George R. Wendling, 

R. B. Sutherland, Chas. Wheaton, 

John L. Tincher, L. D. Whiting, 

C. Truesdale, John H. Wilson, 

Henry Tubbs, Orlando H. Wright. 

Attest: John Q. Harmon, Secretary. 

Daniel Shepard, First Assistant Secretary. 

A. H. Swain, Second Assistant Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

The first amendment was proposed by the thirtieth General 
Assembly, 1877, and was adopted by a vote of the people on 
November 5, A. D. 1878. It applied to Section 31 of Article IV. 
For the text of the amendment see page 87. 

The second amendment was proposed by the thirty-first General 
Assembly, 1879, and was adopted by a vote of the people on 
November 2, A. d. 1880. It applied to Section 8 of Article X. 
See page 108. 

The third amendment was proposed by the General Assembly, 

1883, and was adopted by a vote of the people November 4, A. d. 

1884. It applied to Section 16 of Article V. See page 90. 

FOURTH AMENDMENT. 

Proposed by the Thirty-fourth General Assembly 1885, and adopted 
by a vote of the People on the 4th day of November, A. D. 1886. 

CONTRACT CONVICT LABOR. 

Hereafter it shall be unlawful for the commissioners of any peni- 
tentiary or other reformatory institution in the State of Illinois 
to let by contract to any person or persons, or corporations, the 
labor of any convict confined within said institution. 



126 CONSTITUTION OF ILLINOIS. 

FIFTH AMENDMENT. 

In force November 29, 1890. 
The corporate authorities of the city of Chicago are hereby 
authorized to issue interest-bearing bonds of said city to an 
amount not exceeding five million dollars, at a rate of interest not 
to exceed five per centum per annum, the principal payable with- 
in thirty years from the date of their issue, and the proceeds 
thereof shall be paid to the treasurer of the World's Columbian 
Exposition, and used and disbursed by him, under the direction 
and control of the directors, in aid of the World's Columbian 
Exposition, to be held in the city of Chicago, in pursuance of an 
act of Congress of the United States : Provided, that if at the 
election for the adoption of this amendment to the constitution, a 
majority of the votes cast within the limits of the city of Chicago 
shall be against its adoption, then no bonds shall be issued under 
this amendment. And said corporate authorities shall be repaid 
as large a proportionate amount of the aid given by them as is 
repaid to the stockholders on the sums subscribed and paid by 
them, and the money so received shall be used in the redemption 
of the bonds issued as aforesaid : Provided, that said authorities 
may take, in whole or in part of the sum coming to them, any 
permanent improvements placed on land held or controlled by 
them: And provided, further, that no such indebtedness so created 
shall in any part thereof be paid by the State, or from any State 
revenue, tax, or fund, but the same shall be paid by the said city 
of Chicago alone. 



INDEX 



TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



^O^O 



Page 

Preamble 75 

ARTICLE I. 
Boundaries of the State .... 75 

ARTICLE II. 

Bill of Rights. 

Section 

1. Origin and object of govern- 

ment 76 

2. How rights may be lost .... 7(5 

3. Religious liberty 76 

4. Freedom of speech. Trials for 

libel 76 

5. Trial by jury 76 

6. Security of person and property 76 

7. Bail. Habeas corpus 76 

8. Indictment by grand jury ... 77 

9. Rights of accused persons . . . 77 

10. Self-accusation. Acquittal . . 77 

11. Penalties proportioned to of- 

fence 77 

12. Debtors to give up their prop- 

erty 77 

13. Private property taken by the 

State must be paid for .... 77 

14. Ex-post-facto laws forbidden . . 77 

15. Civil power superior to military 

power 77 

16. Quartering soldiers on citizens 78 

17. Right of the people to assemble 

and consult and to apply for 

redress of grievances . * . . 78 

18. Free and equal elections ... 78 

19. Remedies for wrongs ..... 78 

20. Liberty to be preserved .... 78 

ARTICLE III. 
Distribution of Powers ..... 78 

ARTICLE IV. 

Legislative Department. 

1. General Assembly 78 



Section Page 

2. Elections and vacancies .... 78 

3. Eligibility 79 

4. Non-eligibility 79 

5. Oath or affirmation 79 

6. Apportionment for senators . . 80 
7 and 8. Minority representation 80 
9. Time of meeting and general 

rules 81 

10. Sessions. Yeas and navs ... 81 

11. Style of laws 82 

12. Origin and passage of bills . . 82 

13. Contents of bills. Emergency 82 

14. Privileges of members 82 

15. Disabilities of members .... 83 

16. Appropriations 83 

17. Payment of money. Statement 

of money expended 83 

18. Provision for expenses of the 

government, and for tempo- 
rary failure of revenue. Lim- 
itation of debt 83 

19. Unauthorized contracts .... 84 

20. State not to assume debts nor 

loan the public credit .... 84 

21. Salary and mileage of members 84 

22. Local or special laws for- 

bidden 85 

23. Release of liability forbidden . 86 

24. Impeachment 86 

25. Supplies for the State to be con- 

tracted for 86 

26. The State never to be sued . . 86 

27. Lotteries and gift enterprises 

prohibited 86 

28. Terms of office not to be ex- 

tended 87 

29. Protection of miners. Safety of 

coal mines 87 

30. Establishing roads and cart- 

ways 87 

31. Drainage and ditches 87 

32. Homestead and exemption 

laws 87 

33. Cost of capitol grounds and 

State house 87 

127 



128 



INDEX TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



ARTICLE V. 
Executive Department, 

Section Page 

1. Officers and terms of service . 

2. State treasurer 

3. Times of election 

4. Returns. Tie vote, how decided 

Contested elections 88 

5. Eligibility . . 89 

6. The governor 89 

7. Message 89 

8. Extra sessions 89 

9. Adjournment 89 

10. Appointments 89 

11. Vacancies 90 

12. Removals 90 

13. Reprieves and pardons .... 90 

14. Commander-in-chief 90 

15. Impeachment 90 

16. Veto power 90 

17. Lieutenant-governor 91 

18. His duties 91 

19. Vacancy in office of governor . 92 

20. Other vacancies. Accounts. 

Reports 92 

21. Executive reports 92 

22. Seal of the State 92 

23. Fees and salaries 93 

24. Definition of office and employ- 

ment 93 

25. Oath or affirmation of officers . 93 

ARTICLE VI. 
Judicial DepaPvTment. 

1. Judicial powers vested in courts 93 

2. The supreme court 94 

3. Eligibility of judges 94 

4. Terms of 'supreme court. Judi- 

cial divisions 94 

5. Grand divisions. Districts. 

Boundaries 94 

6. Terms and time of election . . 95 

7. Salaries 95 

8. Appeals 96 

9. Reporter 96 

10. Clerk 96 

11. Appellate courts 96 

12. Circuit courts, jurisdiction of . 96 

13. Judicial circuits 96 

14. Terms of circuit courts. Elec- 

tion of judges 97 

15. Change of circuits 97 

16. Salaries of judges 97 

17. Eligibility of judges and of 

county commissioners .... 98 

18. County courts 98 

19. Appeals from county courts . . 98 

20. Probate courts 98 

21. Justices of the peace. Consta- 

bles » 99 

22. State's attorney ........ 99 

23. Courts in Cook county 99 

24. Chief justice in Cook county . 99 

25. Other judges in Cook county. 

Salaries . 99 

26. Criminal court of Cook county 100 

27. Clerks of courts in Cook county 100 

28. Justices of the peace in Chicago 100 



I Section Page 

I 29. Uniform rules in courts .... 101 

30. Removal of judicial officers . . 101 

31. Reports of judges 101 

87 32. Terms. Residence. Duties. 

88 Vacancies 101 

88 33. Process. Prosecutions. Popu- 
lation 102 



ARTICLE VII. 
Suffrage. 

1. Qualification of voters . 

2. Method of voting . . . . 

3. Privileges of electors . 

4. Residence of electors . 

5. Soldiers and seamen . . 

6. Qualifications for office 

7. Exclusion from suffrage 



102 
102 
102 
102 
102 
102 
102 



ARTICLE VIII. 
Education. 

1 . Free schools 103 

2. Grants to schools 103 

3. Sectarian schools 103 

4. Teachers and school officers not 

to be interested in sale of 

books, etc 103 

5. County superintendent .... 103 

ARTICLE IX. 
Revenue. 

1. Taxes must be uniform .... 103 

2. Further taxation 104 

3. Exemptions 104 

4. Sale of property for taxes . . . 104 

5. Right of redemption 104 

6. Release or commutation of 

taxes forbidden 104 

7. Taxes paid to the State .... 105 

8. Limitation of county tax . . . 105 

9. Special assessments 105 

10. Municipal taxes 105 

11. Defaulters ...*** 105 

12. Limitation of municipal debt . 105 

ARTICLE X. 
Counties. 

1. New counties 106 

2. Division of counties 106 

3. Changes in counties 106 

4 Removal of county seat . ... 106 

5. County government 107 

6. County commissioners 107 

7. County affairs of Cook county . 108 

8. County officers. Elections . . 108 

9. Salaries of Cook county officers 108 

10. Salaries fixed bv county board 108 

11. Uniform fees. ." 109 

12. Classification of counties ... 109 

13. Official reports of fees 109 

ARTICLE XI. 
Corporations. 

1. Corporations. How organized . 110 

2. Certain charters not valid . . . 110 



INDEX TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



129 



Section Page 

3. Cumulative voting for directors 110 

4. Street railways 110 

5. State banks 110 

6. Liability of bank stockholders. Ill 

7. Suspension of specie payment . Ill 

8. General banking law Ill 

9. Railway offices and reports . . Ill 

10. Railway stock and personal 

property 112 

11. Consolidation restricted .... 112 

12. Railways declared public high- 

ways. Rates 112 

13. Stocks. Bonds. Dividends. In- 

crease of stock 112 

14. Power of the State over incor- 

porated companies 112 

15. Power to regulate freight and 

passenger tariffs 113 



ARTICLE XII. 
Militia. 

1. The militia defined 113 

2. Organization, equipment and 

discipline 113 

3. Officers' commissions 113 

4. Privileges of militia 113 

5. Preservation of banners, re- 

cords, etc 113 

6. Exemptions from militia ser- 

vice 113 



ARTICLE XIII. 
Warehouses. 

Section Page 

1. Public warehouses 113 

2. Weekly statements 114 

3. Property stored may be exam- 

ined by owners 114 

4. Carriers liable for full weight . 114 

5. Delivery of grain 114 

6. Warehouse receipts 114 

7. Inspection of grain 115 

ARTICLE XIV. 
Amendments to Constitution. 

1. May be made by a convention . 115 

2. May be proposed by the Gen- 

eral Assembly 116 

SECTIONS SEPARATELY SUB- 
MITTED. 

Illinois Central Railroad 116 

Minority representation 116 

Municipal subscriptions 116 

Illinois and Michigan Canal ... 117 

Schedule 117 

AMENDMENTS. 

First amendment 125 

Second amendment 125 

Third amendment 125 

Fourth amendment 125 

Fifth amendment 126 



APPENDIX. 



LIST OF GOVERNORS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, 
WITH DATES OF SERVICE. 

From To 

1. Shadrach Bond 1818 1822. 

2. Edward Coles 1822 1826. 

3. Ninian Edwards 1826 1830. 

4. John Eeynolds 1830 1834. 

5. Wm. Lee D. Ewing 1 Nov. 17, 1834 Dec. 3, 1834. 

6. Joseph Duncan 1834 1838. 

7. Thomas Carlin 1838 1842. 

8. Thomas Ford 1842 1846. 

9. Augustus C. French 2 1846 1849. 

10. Augustus C. French 1849 1853. 

11. Joel A. Matteson 1853 1857. 

12. William H.Bissell 3 1857 1860. 

13. John Wood 1860 1861. 

14. Eichard Yates 1861 1865. 

15. Eichard J. Oglesby 1865 1869. 

16. John M. Palmer 1869 1873. 

17. Eichard J. Oglesby* 1873 1873. 

18. John L. Beveridge 1873 1877. 

19. Shelby M. Cullom 1877 1881. 

20. Shelby M. Cullom 5 1881 1883. 

21. John M. Hamilton 1883 1885. 

22. Eichard J. Oglesby . . ." 1885 1889. 

23. Joseph W. Fifer 1889 1893. 

24. John P. Altgeld 1893 . 

1 Gov. Reynolds being elected to Congress. 

2 First term shortened by adoption of new Constitution of 1848. 

3 Died in office ; Lieut. -Governor Wood taking his place. 

4 Elected to U. S. Senate, Lieut.-Governor Beveridge taking his place. 

5 Elected to U. S. Senate, Lieut.-Governor Hamilton taking his place. 

130 



APPENDIX. 131 



Population of the several Counties of Illinois ac- 
cording to the Census of 1890, showing loss or 

gain of population compared with the Census 
of 1880. 

(The loss in population is indicated by the minus sign.) 

Names. 1890. Loss or Gain. 

Adams 61,888 2,753 

Alexander 16,563 1,755 

Bond 14,550 —316 

Boone 12,203 695 

Brown 11,951 —1,090 

Bureau 35,014 1,842 

Calhoun 7,652 185 

Carroll 18,320 1,344 

Cass 15,963 1,470 

Champaign 42,159 1,296 

Christian 30,531 2,304 

Clark 21,899 5 

Clay 16,772 580 

Clinton 17,411 —1,303 

Coles 30,093 3,051 

Cook 1,191,922 584,398 

Crawford 17,283 1,086" 

Cumberland 15,443 1,684 

De Kalb 27,066 298 

De Witt 17,011 1 

Douglas 17,669 1,816 

DuPage 22,551 3,390 

Edgar 26,787 1,283 

Edwards 9,444 847 

Effingham 19,358 438 

Fayette 23,367 126 

Ford . 17,035 1,936 

Franklin 17,138 1,009 

Fulton 43,110 1,870 



132 APPENDIX. 

Population of Illinois — Continued. 

Names. 1890. Loss or Gain. 

Gallatin 14,935 2,074 

Greene . 23,791 781 

Grundy 21,024 4,292 

Hamilton 17,800 1,088 

Hancock 31,907 —3,430 

Hardin 7,234 1,210 

Henderson 9,876 —846 

Henry 33,338 —3,259 

Iroquois 35,167 —284 

Jackson 27,809 5,304 

Jasper 18,188 3,673 

Jefferson 22,590 1,904 

Jersey 14,810 —732 

Jo Daviess 25,101 —2,427 

Johnson 15,013 1,935 

Kane 65,061 20,122 

Kankakee 28,732 3,685 

Kendall 12,106 —977 

Knox 38,752 408 

Lake 24,235 2,939 

La Salle 80,798 10,395 

Lawrence 14,693 1,030 

Lee 26,187 —1,304 

Livingston 38,455 5 

Logan 25,489 452 

Macon 38,083 7,418 

Macoupin 40,380 2,688 

Madison 51,535 1,409 

Marion 24,341 655 

Marshall . . . ' 13,653 — 1,402 

Mason 16,067 —175 

Massac 11,313 870 

McDonough 27,467 — 503 

McHenry 26,114 1,206 

McLean 63,036 2,936 

Menard 13,120 96 

Mercer 18,545 —957 

Monroe 12,948 — 734 

Montgomery 30,003 1,925 



APPENDIX. 133 

Population of Illinois — Continued. 

Names. 1890. Loss or Gain. 

Morgan 32,636 1,122 

Moultrie 14,481 782 

Ogle 28,710 1,227 

Peoria 70,378 15,023 

Perry . 17,529 1,522 

Piatt 17,062 1,479 

Pike 31,000 —2,751 

Pope 14,016 760 

Pulaski 11,355 1,848 

Putnam 4,730 824 

Kandolph 25,049 —641 

Kichland 15,019 —526 

Eock Island 41,917 3,615 

Saline 19,342 3,402 

Sangamon 61,195 8,301 

Schuyler 16,013 —236 

Scott 10,304 —437 

Shelby 31,191 921 

Stark : 9,982 —1,225 

St. Clair 66,571 4,765 

Stephenson 31,338 —625 

Tazewell 29,556 —110 

Union 21,549 3,447 

Vermilion 49,905 8,317 

Wabash 11,866 1,921 

Warren 21,281 —1,652 

Washington 19,262 —1,850 

Wayne 23,806 2,515 

W T hite 25,005 1,918 

Whiteside 30,854 —31 

Will 62,007 8,585 

Williamson 22,226 2,902 

Winnebago 39,938 9,433 

Woodford 21,429 — 191 

3,826,351 748,480 



oXJKo 



134 



APPENDIX, 



List of Cities in Illinois having a population of 
more than SOOO, according to the Census of 
1890. 



1. Alton ....... 10,294 

2. Aurora 19,688 

3. Belleville 15,361 

4. Bloomington .... 20,484 

5. Cairo 10,324 

6. Canton 5,604 

7. Champaign 5,839 

8. Chicago 1,099,850 

9. Danville 11,491 

10. Decatur 16,841 

11. Dixon 5,161 

12. East St. Louis .... 15,169 

13. Elgin 17,823 

14. Evanston 14,000 

15. Freeport 10,189 

16. Galena 5,635 

17. Galesburg 15,264 

18. Jacksonville .... 12,935 

19. Joliet 23,264 



20. Kankakee ..... 9,025 

21. La Salle .... . . 9,855 

22. Lincoln ...... 6,725 

23. Litchfield 5,811 

24. Mattoon ...... 6,833 

25. Moline ....... 12,000 

26. Monmouth 5,936 

27. Ottawa 9,985 

28. Pana 5,077 

29. Pekin . 6,347 

30. Peoria ....... 41,024 

31. Peru 5,550 

32. Quincy 31,494 

33. Eockford ...... 23,584 

34. Eock Island .... 13,634 

35. Springfield ..... 24,963 

36. Sterling 5,824 

37. Streator 11,414 




(The references are to paragraphs except where otherwise indicated.) 






Adjutant-general, p. 41 
Appellate courts, 68 
Appendix, p. 130 
Assessor of taxes, 92 
Altgeld, J. P., 45 
Attorney-general, 61 
Auditor of public accounts, 58 

Beveridge, J. L., 43 

Bissel, W. H., 39 

Board of commissioners of State 
contracts, p. 37 

Board of trustees of Lincoln Home- 
stead, p. 41 

Board of penitentiary commission- 
ers, p. 41 

Boards of education, 107 

Bond, Shadrach, 29 

Carlin, Thomas, 35 

Casting the ballot, 128 

Chase, Chief-justice, 20 

Chief grain inspector, p. 39 

Circuit courts, 66 

Citizen, 47 

City, 108 

City assessor, 113 

City attorney, 116 

City clerk, 111 

City collector of taxes, 113 

City comptroller, 113 

City council, 109 

City courts, 114 

City mayor, 110 

City police department, 117 

City superintendent of streets, 113 

City treasurer, 112 



Clark, George Sogers, 18 
Clerk of circuit court, 78 
Coles, Edward, 30 
Commissioner of claims, p. 38 
Commissioner of Canada thistles, 98 
Commissioners of deeds, p. 41 
Company of the Indies, 9 
Constable, 96 

Constitution of Illinois, p. 75 
j Conventions, 122 
Coroner, 83 

Corporation counsel, 116 
County, 71 

County board of commissioners, 76 
County board of supervisors, 75 
County clerk, 78 
County courts, 65 
County government, 73, 74 
County judge, 77 
County officers, 72 
County superintendent of schools, 

85 
County surveyor, 84 
County treasurer, 81 
Crozat, 6, 7, 8 
Cullom, S. M., 44 

Delegate elections, 121 
Douglas, S. A., 39, 46 
Duncan, Joseph, 34 

Edwards, Ninian, 24, 32 
Elections, 127 
Election officers, 126 
Escheats, p. 47 
Executive power, 54 

135 



136 



INDEX. 



Factory inspector, p. 39 
Fifer, J. W., 45 
Ford, Thomas, 36 
Fort Chartres, 11 
French, A. C, 37 

General Assembly, 50 
General election, p. 39 
Government of county, 73, 74 
Government of State, 48 
Government of town, 87 
Governor, 55 
Grant, U. S., 46 

Harrison, William Henry, 22 
Highway commissioners, 94 
House of Representatives, 52 
How laws are made, 53 

Illinois Central Eailroad, 70 
Index to Constitution, p. 127 

Judge of county court, 77 
Judicial power, 63 
Justice of the peace, 64, 95 
Justices' courts, 64 

La Salle, 1, 2, 3 
Law, John, 9 
Laws, how made, 53 
Legislative power, 49 
Lieutenant-governor, 56 
Lincoln, Abraham, 39, 46 
Logan, John A., 46 
Lovejoy, E. P., 34 

Making the ticket, 125 
Mattison, Joel, 38 
Mayor of city, 110 
Minority representation, 52 
Mississippi scheme, 9 
Moses, Judge, 10, 31, 33 

National convention, p. 71 
National guard, p. 41 



Nomination papers, 124 
Nominations, 123 
Northwest Territory, 17 
Notaries public, p. 40 

Officer-elect, 129' 
Oglesby, Eichard, 41, 43 
Overseers of highways, 99 

Palmer, J. M., 42 

Party committees, 120 

Plurality and majority votes, p. 74 

Police department of city, 117 

Police magistrates, 64, 115 

Police magistrates' courts, 64 

Political parties 119 

Pontiac, 12 

Pope, Judge, 28 

Pound-master, 97 

Prevention of cruelty to animals, 
p. 40 

Primary elections, 121 

Probate courts, 65 

Prominent events in history of Illi- 
nois, pp. 26, 27 

Public administrator, p. 41 

Eecorder of deeds, 79 
Eevenue of the State, 69 
Eeynolds, John, 33 

School directors, 106 

School fund, p. 55 

School trustees, 105 

Secretary of State, 57 

Senate, 51 

Sheriff, 82 

State boards, 62 

State board of agriculture, p. 37 

State board of canal commissioners, 

p. 38 
State board of dental examiners, 

p. 39 
State board of election returns, p. 

39 



INDEX. 



137 



State board of equalization, p. 37 

State board of fish commissioners, 
p. 38 

State board of health, p. 37 

State board of horticulture, p. 37 

State board of inspectors of coal 
mines, p. 38 

State board of labor statistics, p. 38 

State board of live stock commis- 
sioners, p. 38 

State board of pharmacy, p. 39 

State board of railway and ware- 
house commissioners, p. 37 

State convention, p. 71 

State entomologist, p. 40 

State geologist, p. 40 

State library and librarian, p. 40 

State superintendent of banks, p. 40 

State superintendent of insurance, 
p. 40 

State treasurer, 59 

State veterinarian, p. 39 

State weigh-master, p. 39 

State's attorney, 80 

St. Clair, Arthur, 21 

Supervisor of town, 90 

Supreme court, 67 



Superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, 60 

Tax collector, 93 

Town, 86 

Town board of appointment, 103 
Town board of auditors, 100 
Town board of equalization of taxes, 

102 
Town board of health, 101 
Town clerk, 91 
Town government, 87 
Town-meeting, 89 
Town officers, 88 
Town supervisor, 90 
Township, 104 
Township school fund, 105 
Treasurer, county, 81 
Treasurer, State, 59 
Treasurer, township, 105 

Village officers, 118 

Wayne, Anthony, 21 
Western Company, 9 

Yates, Eichard, 40 



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